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Cybersecurity

China’s New Cybersecurity Law

cybersecurity cyber net politics cfr china npc security national internet

By experts and staff

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Experts

  • By Adam Segal
    Ira A. Lipman Chair in Emerging Technologies and National Security and Director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program

The National People’s Congress posted the draft of a new cybersecurity law (in Chinese) on Monday. The purpose of the law, according the NPC, is to maintain “cyberspace sovereignty.” The law is open for comments until August, and the important questions will be in how it is modified, interpreted, and implemented. But here are some of the key points:

The foreign business community will be reading the law closely, trying to determine how the cybersecurity standards and procurement provisions will be implemented. The past few months will not give them great comfort, as Beijing has adopted a national security law and other provisions to make technology used in China “secure and controllable.”

Just weeks after the Strategic and Economic Dialogue ended, and months before President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, cybersecurity and information technology are becoming an even greater source of tension in the bilateral relationship.