China’s rubber-stamp legislature passed sweeping laws on Wednesday, July 1, that increase the Communist Party’s control and politicization of all aspects of society, including cyberspace, cultural products, and finance, bringing them all under the rubric of “national security.”
Because the Chinese communist ideology conflates the nation with the Party, China analysts and academics said that the broadening of China’s security laws will give the Party’s security apparatus and the courts more power and ability to prosecute individuals or groups who are perceived to be threats.
The vaguely worded National Security Law is one of several new regulatory moves by China that worry privacy advocates and have foreign businesses concerned about potential harm to their operations inside the country.
The law calls for strengthened management over the Web and tougher measures against online attacks, theft of secrets, and the spread of illegal or harmful information.
It said core information technology, critical infrastructure, and important systems and data must be “secure and controllable” in order to protect China’s sovereignty over its cyberspace.
