According to state media, the revised law requires government agencies to protect information that is “not a state secret, but whose leakage would have certain negative consequences.”
Chinese lawmakers expanded the Chinese government's state secrets law for the first time since 2010, expanding the scope of restricted classified information to include “business secrets,” state media reported.
China's top legislative body passed the revised State Secrets Protection Law on Tuesday, which will come into force from May 1, Xinhua News Agency said.
Analysts say the law's expansion is further evidence of Chinese President Xi Jinping's increasing focus on national security. This has already led to sweeping changes to the Chinese government's anti-espionage law in April last year, with some countries worried that the law could be used to punish ordinary business activities. ing.
Last year's raids by Chinese police on several management consulting firms, including Mintz Group and Bain & Company, raised concerns in China's foreign business community. A Japanese pharmaceutical company executive has also been detained in Beijing on suspicion of espionage since March last year.
Currently, state secrets include a wide range of fields, from economic development, science and technology, as well as government and Communist Party decision-making to military and diplomatic activities.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the revised State Secrets Law requires government agencies and working departments to protect information that is “not a state secret, but whose leakage would have certain negative consequences.”
It added that rules regarding the specific management of work secrets will be published separately, but did not give a date.
Xinhua News Agency quoted an anonymous official at the State Secret Service as saying that the revised law would “strengthen the codification, comprehensiveness and synergy” of a series of laws on national security and state secrets.
“This revised version…is clearly written. [Communist] “Management of party secrets is stipulated by law,” the official said, adding that online operators should “cooperate with relevant departments in investigating and handling cases suspected of leaking state secrets.”
The bill also “strengthens alignment” with China's data protection law regarding the management of sensitive data, the official said.
Since last year, the Ministry of State Security has increasingly used its official social media WeChat account to warn citizens to remain vigilant against foreign espionage.