27 March 2015

The Real Intention Behind China's Extreme Counter-Terrorism Law

March 26, 2015

The People’s Republic of China is postponing the third reading of a controversial draft of a new counter-terrorism law which, among other things, would have required Western technology firms to hand over encryption keys, source code, and install “backdoors” (bypassing normal authentication) giving Chinese authorities remote access to computers and networks.

Recent reports by U.S. authorities that the law has been put on hold for good have turned out to be premature. The law will likely be somewhat revised to address some Western concerns, since Beijing is still technologically dependent on foreign companies, despite a push to eliminate foreign technology in key sectors by 2020. “Currently, the deliberation on this law is ongoing,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on March 16.

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