BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese lawmakers passed a wide-ranging update to Beijing’s anti-espionage legislation on Wednesday, banning the transfer of any information related to national security and interests and broadening the definition of spying.
China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) has passed a revised Counter-Espionage Law, the official Xinhua news agency reported, following three days of deliberations by the top legislative body.
It is the first update of the law since 2014 and according to China’s National Radio, will be effective from July 1.
Since taking power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has made national security a key focus of his administration, stressing during China’s annual legislative sessions last month that “security is the bedrock of development”.
Though the NPC has yet to release the full text of the law, the China News Service (CNS) reported that “documents, data, materials, and items related to national security and interests” will come under the same protection as state secrets following the revisions.
The law does not define what falls under China’s national security or interests.
It expands the definition of espionage to include cyber attacks against state organs or critical information infrastructure, CNS reported.
The revised law will allow authorities carrying out an anti-espionage investigation to gain access to data, information on personal property and also to ban border crossings, CNS said.
In recent years, China has detained dozens of Chinese and foreign nationals on suspicion of espionage, such as an executive at Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma who was detained in Beijing last month. Espionage cases are usually tried in secret due to their links to national security.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
