China’s parliament has published a draft cybersecurity law that consolidates Beijing’s control over data, with potentially significant consequences for Internet service providers and multinational firms conducting business in the nation.
The document, dated on Monday, but picked up by state media yesterday, strengthens user privacy protection from hackers and data resellers, but elevates the government’s powers to obtain records on and block dissemination of private information deemed illegal under Chinese law.
Citing the need “to safeguard national cyberspace sovereignty, security and development,” the proposed legislation is to allow China to bolster its networks against threats to stability and better regulate the flow of information.
China’s National People’s Congress on Wednesday last week passed a sweeping national security law that tightened government control in politics, culture, the military, the economy, technology and the environment.
However, cybersecurity has been a particularly irksome area in relations with economic partners, such as the US and the EU, which see many recently proposed rules as unfair to foreign firms.
EU Chamber of Commerce in China president Joerg Wuttke said that the business lobby was still reviewing the draft law, but that it was “worried.”
“The chief concern is that, as with many Chinese laws, the language is vague enough to make it unclear how the law will be enforced,” Wuttke said.
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