Such broad discretion might be considered necessary in addressing national security threats, but the resulting uncertainty runs counter to rule of law,” Daum added. “The result is that state security forces already had an enormous amount of discretion in enforcement, and the revision doubled down on that, rather than fixing the problem. Intelligence, for example, was ‘matters that concern state security and interests are either not yet public or should not be made public,’ in a SPC interpretation on criminal violations of intelligence,” Daum told The China Project. “It’s important to understand that the terms ‘state security’ and ‘intelligence’ - the previously existing categories in Article 4(3) - were already defined very broadly. “Specifically, defined attempts to acquire the information related to national security or interests as an ‘act of espionage,’ alongside collecting state secrets or intelligence,” Jeremy Daum, senior research fellow at Paul Tsai China Center, Yale Law School, told The China Project today.Īrticle 54 of the espionage law states that “where acts of espionage are carried out by individuals, but do not constitute a crime, the state security organs are to give warnings or up to 15 days of administrative detention.” Those subject to the law can also be sanctioned by “relevant departments” and receive a fine of more than 50,000 yuan ($7,233). The law will allow Chinese authorities to impose exit bans on anyone under investigation, whether they are Chinese or foreigners, if they are deemed a potential national security risk after leaving the country. The legal revisions, which go into effect on July 1, have heightened concern over the risks to individuals and organizations operating in China, particularly those in sensitive industries such as journalism, technology, research, and data monitoring. Cyber attacks that target China’s “state organs, confidential organs or crucial information infrastructure” can also count as an act of espionage under the new version of the law.
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