China Passes Anti-Terrorism Law Amid US Concerns Of secretly spying

China passed the country's first counterterrorism law Sunday, aimed at addressing terrorism at home and helping maintain world security, Xinhua reported. The draft legislation had drawn criticism from the United States, which cited concerns that the law may be used to force foreign technology companies, including American ones, to assist Chinese authorities in spying.


Chinese lawmakers approved the legislation Sunday afternoon, at the end of a weeklong bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. An overwhelming 157 legislators of the 158 present voted in favor of the law, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

U.S. concerns have centered on the technology provisions in the law, which make it mandatory for telecommunication companies and internet service providers (ISPs) to install "back doors" in their servers that can be accessed by the government, and also to make available to public security agencies any data stored on the servers. The law also requires ISPs to locate their servers in China and to store all the user data from China locally, as well as to disclose their data encryption methods to the government.


U.S. President Barack Obama said in March, during an interview with Reuters, that the law “would essentially force all foreign companies, including U.S. companies, to turn over to the Chinese government mechanisms where they could snoop and keep track of all the users of those services.” He added that it was a concern he had raised directly with President Xi Jinping of China.

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