China Publishes Draft National Security Law for Public Comment

On May 7, the National People's Congress (NPC) released its second draft of the National Security Law for public comment. This was the first time that a draft of this law was made public. Previously, the 12th NPC Standing Committee had held two readings internally at regular sessions, with this second-reading version finalized in April.

In November 2014, China issued its Counterespionage Law, replacing the original National Security Law of 1993. Since the previous National Security Law was primarily about counterespionage, the new Counterespionage Law could be considered a revised and renamed version. 

The newly proposed National Security Law, however, is a more comprehensive piece of legislation, covering a wide scope, including politics, culture, military affairs, the economy, finance, technology innovation systems, national cyber and information security, environment, and food safety. 

Acknowledging the significant role that ICT plays across sectors, the draft law emphasizes "secure and controllable" systems and data security in critical infrastructure and key areas, as well as prevention of online dissemination of illegal content. Indigenous innovation capacity building is also emphasized as a tool to help achieve the objective of ensuring national security.

According to China's legislation practice, this law will be adopted after three NPC readings. The current public comment period is through June 5, 2015.