National People’s Congress Standing Committee approves amendment to the National Secrets Protection Act
Concerns were raised about “the application of the regulations has become ambiguous”
On the 27th, the Chinese government passed an amendment to the National Secrets Protection Act, which is known to more strictly apply regulations related to state secrets. There are also voices of concern in conjunction with China’s recently strengthened internal regulations, such as the Anti-Espionage Act.
According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency and Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP), the newly revised State Secrets Protection Act was passed at the 8th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), held for two days from the previous day at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping signed and promulgated Presidential Decree No. 20.
This is the first revision of the law in over 10 years and the second since its introduction in 1988.
The full draft has not been made public, but it includes tighter restrictions on matters authorities consider state secrets. It is known that it also includes provisions requiring the government to protect information that arises or is acquired in business that is not a state secret.
China Central (CC) TV reported that the draft amendment bill also includes provisions to strengthen restrictions on state employees leaving their workplace, such as requiring those holding state secrets to receive secret training and return confidential information.
Zhao Leji, Chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, said, “The newly revised State Secrets Protection Law clarifies the basic principles of confidential work and further improves the secret management system and supervision measures. “We have provided stronger legal guarantees,” he was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.
Accordingly, some point out that the National Secrets Protection Act may be used more ambiguously. SCMP expressed concern that “as the definition of professional secrets becomes more ambiguous, authorities may have greater flexibility regarding what content cannot be disclosed.”
On this day, the Standing Committee decided on the National People’s Congress Standing Committee Representative Qualification Review Committee’s report on individual representative qualifications and other appointment and dismissal proposals. In addition, the agenda and list of attendees for the second meeting of the 14th National People’s Congress were also passed.
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Source: Donga
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