NPC Report Reviews Implementation of Cyber Regulations

On December 24, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China's top legislature body, delivered a report reviewing the implementation of the Cybersecurity Law ( the CSL) and the Decisions on Strengthening Network Information Protection (the Decision) in its bi-monthly meeting session.
 
The report is based on a law enforcement inspection conducted from August to October that detailed the current implementation of the CSL and the Decision, and pointed out weaknesses in the implementation of both documents and provided recommendations moving forward.  In his report to the NPC legislators, Wang Shengjun, Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, highlighted that cybersecurity first and foremost concerns the long-term ruling of the Communist Party, long-term peace and stability, economic and social development, and interests of the people. In light of this critical importance, the NPC Standing Committee acted quickly in launching an enforcement inspection only three months after the CSL took effect.

The report closely follows President Xi's call for acceleration of a substitution plan with domestic indigenous controllable technology and ambition to build an "indigenous and controllable" technology system in cyberspace, and outlined short term objective to establish a core technology system in cyberspace in 2020 and a slew of initiatives and financial support from MIIT, MOST, MOE and others to support the goal. The report specifically called out China's heavy dependence on foreign technology in industrial control sectors and the reliance on foreign operators for configuration and technical support, as the State media Xinhua highlighted in its headline: "China warns companies against reliance on foreign technology".