China will use all means necessary to protect its information security, including the use of its military, striking a hard line in the country’s first strategic report on cybersecurity.
Cyberspace Administration of China Bureau of Cybersecurity Director-General Zhao Zeliang (趙澤良) yesterday called for a “secure and controllable” Internet at a briefing in Beijing.
He unveiled a plan to adopt a review process for all domestic and foreign companies for “key information products and services” before they are deemed safe to be sold or deployed in China’s market.
Any technologies intended for use by the government, Chinese Communist Party organs and major industries would undergo extra scrutiny, he said.
Cybersecurity has been a hallmark of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) tenure.
The announcement followed the adoption of a sweeping cybersecurity law last month that would require Web operators in China to cooperate with police investigations and, in some cases, provide source code and encryption keys.
International cybersecurity and espionage has become a bigger concern since Edward Snowden’s revelations about US spying; more recently, US intelligence agencies have blamed Russia for hacking and leaking stolen material to interfere with the US presidential election.
“China will do its utmost to protect the information safety of the country and its citizens,” said Zhao, who was presenting China’s first National Cybersecurity Strategy Report.
China has become suspicious of foreign operators and more aggressive about safeguarding its information technology systems.
At the same time, the nation is home to a sizable domestic criminal hacking community, which sucks about US$15 billion out of the economy each year, Zheng Bu, an angel investor and former executive at enterprise cybersecurity firm FireEye, told a cybersecurity conference in Beijing a few months ago.
The review process was not designed specifically to limit foreign technology companies’ business in China, Zhao said.
However, when China’s new cybersecurity law was passed last month, American Chamber of Commerce in China chairman James Zimmerman said in a statement that Beijing’s direction worried foreign companies.
“The Chinese government is right in wanting to ensure the security of digital systems and information here,” he said, but added that recent measures “create barriers to trade and innovation.”
Zhao did not elaborate on what kind of military response China would take to protect its information security.
China also called for more global cooperation to prevent a cyberwar, the report said.
The government is to issue further implementation measures on the cybersecurity law and the control of cyberspace, Zhao said.
“China wants an open cyberenvironment, while at same time a safe one too,” he added.
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