US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said the law could make illegal some ordinary duties of American business people, academics and journalists in the country, Asia Times reported.
On April 26, the National People’s Congress (NPC) standing committee passed an amendment to strengthen the country’s anti-spy law, which will come into effect on July 1.
According to Asia Times, the definition of offenders will be expanded from people who “join or accept tasks from” an espionage organization to those who “take refuge in” it.
The coverage will also be widened from “state secrets and intelligence” to “other documents, data, materials and items related to national security and interests.”
Burns during a webinar organized by The Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank on Tuesday, said: “This is a law that could potentially make illegal in China the kind of mundane activities that businesses would have to do. We need to know more about it so we are asking questions here in Beijing.”
Burns said American firms have to do due diligence before they can agree to major investment deals, while they also need to have full access to economic data to make projections.
“The law could possibly imperil academic research. Professors and journalists could get caught up on this. But what we know so far is not positive,” he said, according to Asia Times.
(With inputs from ANI)
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
0 Comments: