CHINA has included cybersecurity in a draft national security law, the latest in a string of moves by Beijing to bolster the legal framework protecting the country’s information technology.

    China has recently advanced a wave of policies to tighten cybersecurity after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden disclosed that U.S. spy agencies planted code in American tech exports to snoop on overseas targets.

    The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislature, reviewed a cyberspace security clause in a proposed national security law, according to a draft posted online last week after its second reading in late April.

    “The State establishes national Internet and information security safeguard systems ... and protects national Internet space sovereignty, security and development interests,” the draft said.

    The country must “achieve security and control in Internet and information core technology, key infrastructure, and important data and information systems,” it said, as well as strengthen Internet management and punish Internet attacks.

    It also said China’s banking infrastructure must be strengthened and its financial systems improved to withstand international risks and shocks. It did not give specific guidelines for implementation.

    China’s earlier attempts to regulate cybersecurity were most clearly articulated in bank-technology guidelines and a proposed counter-terrorism law, which called for a similar use of “secure and controllable” technology that is developed in China or source code that is released to Chinese inspectors.

    President Xi Jinping, who heads a newly established national security commission, has said China’s security covers a wide array of areas, including politics, culture, the military, the economy, technology and the environment.

    (SD-Agencies)