China lawmakers mulling over cyber-security law
June 24, 2015, 10:55 am

China’s earlier attempts to regulate cybersecurity were most clearly articulated in bank-technology guidelines and a proposed counter-terrorism law [Xinhua]

The draft law was submitted to lawmakers for its first reading at the bimonthly session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which runs from June 24 to July 1.

For a similar law in the US, privacy advocates have opposed giving companies liability protections, worried about abuses of consumer data both by the private sector and the government.

The US House of Representatives voted in April this year to pass a bill that extends liability protection for companies that share information about cyber attacks, if they give the data to the US Department of Homeland Security.

China has recently advanced a wave of policies to tighten cybersecurity after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden disclosed that US spy agencies planted code in American tech exports to snoop on overseas targets.

President Xi Jinping, who heads a newly established national security commission, has said China’s security covers a wide array of areas, including politics, culture, the military, the economy, technology and the environment.

In May last year, the United States charged five Chinese military officers with hacking American firms, prompting China to shut down a bilateral working group on cybersecurity.

China has denied these accusations made by Washington.

A senior Chinese military officer had labelled the United States the world’s biggest cyber-thief last year.

“In terms of both military and political intelligence and trade secrets, the United States is the world’s No.1 cyber thief and its spying force should be indicted,” Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, said.

According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, Washington has spied on at least 35 world leaders in addition to mass surveillance of private citizens and businesses even among key allied countries.

TBP and Agencies