Gov't should clarify rules during implementation: experts
Foreign firms should follow China's newly adopted Cyber Security Law as they do in other countries, experts said, after over 40 international business and technology organizations representing hundreds of companies on Friday expressed "deep concerns" about the law.
In their open letter, the groups said that China's efforts to control more of its Internet and technology would "effectively erect trade barriers along national boundaries" while failing to achieve its security objectives, Reuters reported.
The law would also burden the industry and undermine "the foundation of China's relations with its commercial partners," the groups wrote in the letter addressed to the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs.
China's first Cyber Security Law, which was adopted at the bimonthly session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee on November 7, is going to be put into force in June 2017.
Zhao Zeliang, director of the Cyberspace Administration of China's cyber security coordination bureau, told a press conference on Tuesday that every article in the law is in accordance with the rules of international trade, and China would not close the door on foreign companies, reported the Legal Daily.
Since there were no specific regulations on China's Internet security such as supervision over big data and personal information, many foreign companies used to sabotage and transfer Chinese Net users' information as commodity or intellectual property rights outside of China, Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Research Center of Law of Communication at the Beijing-based China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Sunday.
In fact, China is not the first country to make laws to safeguard its information security in critical areas, Zhu noted.
"Such laws in the U.S. have been effective for many years and are followed by all of the companies. Why is China's Cyber Security law so upsetting for the foreign companies and cannot be understood by them?" Zhu said.
"The dissenting voices will not influence the implementation of the law, and there is a long 'grace period' till June, which all organizations and individuals should make full use of to adjust to the law," Wang Sixin, a legal expert at Communication University of China, told the Global Times on Sunday.
However, Zhu noted that the Chinese government or legislature should further clarify how the law will apply to the operation of the firms in future, as the objective of the letter is to reduce the uncertainties surrounding the law.
