Summary: China aims to make anti-terror law that could change how Westerners do business there.
Once again the fear of terrorism from Muslim extremists is leading to drastic revisions in federal law: this time in China. Their new anti-terror law affects not only China, but the West as well, as the draft for the law requires technology firms to install “backdoors” in their products and to give encryption keys to the government. U.S. President Barack Obama has talked directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the law, but China says Western countries including the Unites States have also required encryption keys and forced foreign businesses to undergo intense security checks.
The overall criticism of the Chinese law, which is waiting a final approval this Sunday from the National People’s Congress, is that, combined with banking and insurance rules, and anti-trust investigations, these new laws cramp foreign companies.
One such law already in place aims to make network infrastructure and information systems “secure and controllable.”
The justification for China putting more control and power into their government comes from the threat of militants and separatists in the Western region of Xinjiang, where hundreds have died these past few years, mainly due to Islamist violence.
Whether this justifies changing how Western companies encrypt their data is another matter. Some say the Muslim Uighur people are resisting government restriction of their religion and culture, and that this has less to do with how businesses structure their technology.
Source: Reuters