Anti-spy efforts need clarity

By Leng Shumei Source:Global Times Published: 2016/10/31 23:43:40

Fighting cyber espionage requires more details

More detailed implementing regulations are needed to tackle the increasingly rampant cyber espionage and to build a comprehensive national security system, even as China’s anti-spy work has been standardized and strengthened two years after the implementation of the Counter-Espionage Law, experts said.

  "Compared to the previous National Security Law which was implemented in 1993, the new law has expanded to more non-traditional espionage activities, including those affecting the economy, culture and network, to deal with new national security concerns," Liu Yuejin, a professor at the School of Public Administration of the University of International Relations, told the Global Times on Monday.

Implemented on November 1, 2014, China’s Counter-Espionage Law states that foreign organizations and people who engage in espionage activities or those who instigate and sponsor similar activities as well as domestic organizations and people who spy on the country for foreign organizations, will be punished.

At a State Security Council meeting in April 2014, Liu said President Xi Jinping vowed to build a comprehensive national security system covering politics, territory, the military, the economy, culture, science and technology, information, the ecology and nuclear and natural resources. 

"The law provides strong legal support to China’s anti-spy work. And it also sets the legal foundation for people who work in the field: the law is more focused and conducive to  anti-spy work under current conditions," Liu said.

Security authorities are authorized to seize any device, funds, venue, supplies and other properties linked to espionage activities, the law says. It notes that security authorities should rely on public support and encourage them to join in the anti-spy work. 

"Anti-spy work has changed considerably in the past two decades with the emergence of computer networking technology. And the Internet has become a hotbed for espionage activities, " Liu said, calling for more detailed regulations to tackle increasing cyber espionage as well as to help build a comprehensive national security system.

Li Qiwu, an expert at the Hainan University Law School, was quoted by local community website kdnet.net as saying that "People who have access to economic or military information or those who seek financial gain are easy prey of espionage organizations." 

Li stressed that young netizens are also likely to be used by foreign espionage organizations. 

Three people in East China’s Jiangsu Province were sentenced in May 2015 for selling state information to foreign espionage groups on the Internet, china.com reported. One of them, a 32-year-old man surnamed Wu, was sentenced to ten years in prison for threatening military security by selling 11 classified military documents and 120 military device photos to foreign espionage organizations.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1015036.shtml