Washington has warned that US and other foreign companies in China could face penalties from Chinese authorities for regular business activities under a counterespionage law that went into effect yesterday.
Chinese lawmakers this year passed a wide-ranging update to Beijing’s anti-espionage legislation, banning the transfer of any information related to national security and broadening the definition of spying.
China this year has also cracked down on US consultancy and due diligence firms, a move business lobbies have said unnerved foreign investors in the world’s second-largest economy.
Photo: AFP
The US government, analysts and lawyers say that the revisions are vague and would give authorities more leeway in implementing already opaque national security legislation.
The US National Counterintelligence and Security Center said in a bulletin issued on Friday that China viewed outbound flow of data as a national security risk, and that the new and existing laws could compel companies’ locally employed Chinese nationals to assist in Chinese intelligence efforts.
“These laws provide the PRC [People’s Republic of China] government with expanded legal grounds for accessing and controlling data held by US firms in China,” it said.
“US companies and individuals in China could also face penalties for traditional business activities that Beijing deems acts of espionage or for actions that Beijing believes assist foreign sanctions against China,” it said.
The ambiguities of the law meant that “any documents, data, materials or items” could be deemed relevant to Chinese national security, also putting journalists, academics and researchers at risk, it said.
China’s embassy in Washington said that Beijing had a right to safeguard national security through domestic legislation.
“China will continue to promote high-level opening-up and provide a more law-based and international business environment for companies from all countries, including the United States,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu (劉鵬宇) said.
Experts have warned that the changes could sweep up those with even tenuous links to organizations accused of spying.
They come in the face of an already tense environment for foreign businesses in China, following raids on and questioning of staff at due diligence company Mintz Group and consulting giant Bain and Co this year.
The new law embodies a “whole-of-society approach to dealing with anything that is a risk to this broad definition of national security,” said Jeremy Daum, senior research fellow at Yale’s Paul Tsai China Center.
Its vague definition of espionage and national security gives authorities a wider berth, and would likely have a “chilling effect on Chinese citizens who have contact with foreigners and foreign organizations,” Daum said.
The new revisions have ruffled feathers among the business community, with companies fearing even tighter scrutiny.
The changes “have raised legitimate concerns about conducting certain routine business activities, which now risk being considered espionage,” US-China Business Council president Craig Allen wrote in a recent blog post.
“Confidence in China’s market will suffer further if the law is applied frequently and without a clear, narrow and direct link to activities universally recognized as espionage,” Allen added.
The US Department of State on Friday updated its travel advisory for China, upgrading the “risk of wrongful detentions” among its warnings for Americans to reconsider travel to the country.
US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns has said that Beijing’s targeting of US firms was politically motivated and that Washington would push back.
Additional reporting by AFP
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS