Chinese lawmakers have expanded Beijing’s state secrets law for the first time since 2010, widening the scope of restricted sensitive information to “work secrets,” according to a full text of the law published online, state media reported.
China’s top legislative body on Tuesday passed the revised Law on Guarding State Secrets, which is to take effect from May 1, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Analysts say the expanded law is further evidence of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) increased focus on national security, which has already led to a wide-ranging update to Beijing’s anti-espionage law in April last year that some countries fear could be used to punish regular business activities.
Photo: EPA-EFE / XINHUA / LIU WEIBING
Raids last year by Chinese police on several management consultancies, including Mintz Group and Bain & Co, have raised concerns among the foreign business community in China, and a Japanese pharmaceutical executive has also been detained in Beijing on espionage allegations since March last year.
State secrets involve areas ranging from government and Chinese Communist Party decisionmaking to military and diplomatic activities, as well as economic development, science and technology.
The update to the 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 systematization, comprehensiveness and synergy” of the set of laws concerning national security and state secrets, Xinhua quoted an unnamed official from the Chinese National Administration of State Secrets Protection 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.
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