NEW DELHI: China has adopted a new Cybersecurity Law, reportedly aimed at tightening and centralising state control over technology equipment. China's state-run radio called it a law to prohibit "online activities that are attempts to overthrow the socialist system, split the nation, undermine national unity, advocate terrorism and extremism."
The new law was passed at the bimonthly session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, after a third reading. "Whenever we bring up secure and reliable... some of our friends, especially our foreign friends, their heads swell up. They see it as synonymous with trade barriers... This is a misunderstanding, a biased view," Zhao Zeliang, CAC spokesman said.
A report on China Radio International's website read, "The government will take measures to 'monitor, defend and handle cybersecurity risks and threats originating from within the country or overseas sources, protecting key information infrastructure from attack, intrusion, disturbance, and damage,' the law reads." The Human Rights Watch said it is a "regressive measure that strengthens censorship, surveillance, and other controls over the internet." HRW said the law essentially translates to censorship through the lens of cybersecurity, adding that it "requires a range of companies to censor 'prohibit' information and restrict online anonymity... requires 'critical information infrastructure operators' to store users' 'personal information and other important business data' in China" among restrictions.
Sophie Richardson, China Director, HRW, said in a statement, "Despite widespread international concern from corporations and rights advocates for more than a year, Chinese authorities pressed ahead with this restrictive law without making meaningful changes. The already heavily censored Internet in China needs more freedom, not less." She said, "If online speech and privacy are a bellwether of Beijing's attitude toward peaceful criticism, everyone, including netizens in China and major international corporations- is now at risk."
