China has expanded its state secrets law, widening the scope of restricted sensitive information to include “work secrets,” according to the text of the law published online. China’s top legislative body passed the revised Law on Guarding State Secrets on Tuesday and it will take effect from May 1, state media outlet reported.
Multiple raids last year on management consultancies have raised concerns among the foreign business community in China. State secrets currently involve areas ranging from government and Communist Party decision-making to military and diplomatic activities, as well as economic development, science, and technology. Experts say the expanded law is further evidence of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s increased focus on national security which has already led to a wide-ranging update to Beijing’s anti-espionage law last April.
How The Law Expanded
The update to the state secrets law requires government agencies and work units to protect pieces of information “that are not state secrets but will cause certain adverse effects if leaked”. It added that rules on the specific management of work secrets would be released separately, without giving a date.
The revised law would “strengthen the systematisation, comprehensiveness and synergy” of the set of laws concerning national security and state secrets, an unnamed official from the State Secrets Bureau was quoted in Xinhua as saying. “This revision … has clearly written the Party’s management of secrecy into the law,” the official said, adding that online operators should “cooperate with relevant departments in investigating and handling cases suspected of leaking state secrets.”
The legislation also “strengthens” coordination with China’s Data Security Law for the management of confidential data, the official said. The Ministry of State Security has increasingly taken to its official WeChat social media account since last year to warn the public to stay vigilant against foreign espionage efforts. This expansion of state secret law comes days after America’s ambassador to Beijing revealed that the Chinese government raided up to seven US companies operating there on suspicion of espionage in the past year.
In an interview with 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday, US Ambassador Nicholas Burns revealed the figure highlighted a troubling trend for Americans who want to do business in China. “On the one hand, they say, “We’re open for business. We want American, Japanese businesses here.” But on the other hand, they’ve raided six or seven American businesses since last March,’ said Burns.
(With agency inputs)
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