China slams UN Human Rights Commissioner for criticising its new security law

Beijing:  China slammed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for criticising its new national security law potentially harmful to civil liberties, on Thursday, saying it amounted to interference in the country’s internal affairs.

“We are strongly dissatisfied with the report and opposed to the statement of the UN High Commissioner who made groundless accusations against China’s normal legislative action,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying told a media briefing here.

[caption id=“attachment_2335354” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. Reuters.[/caption] “It constitutes interference in China’s internal affairs,” she said.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has expressed deep concern about the human rights implications regarding the scope of a new law on national security adopted by China on 1 July.

The Chinese law “raises many concerns due to its extraordinarily broad scope coupled with the vagueness of its terminology and definitions,” he said in statement on 7 July. The new law passed early this month covers a wide spectrum of areas including defence, finance, science and technology, culture and religion.

Outer space activities and assets, as well as those at ocean depths and in polar regions, were also brought under the

national security umbrella.

Meanwhile, China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), has released the draft new law on cyber security which empowers central and provincial governments to cut internet access in cases of terrorist threats or attempts to overthrow state power.

The NPC, which is considering the draft, said the law is urgently needed to deal with the increasingly worrying threats to Chinese cyber security, which includes cyber intrusion and attacks, illegally obtaining and selling personal information and illegal information promoting terrorism, extremism and inciting to subvert State power.

“The [cyber security] clause is necessary to cut the spread of dangerous information as soon as possible, such as information involving terrorism,” Zhao Zhanling, a legal counsel with the Internet Society of China, told the Global Times.

The draft law protects key information-related infrastructure, which is expected to affect foreign companies in China, the Global Times report said.

Under this Internet products and services purchased by operators of such infrastructure will have to undergo national security check by the cyber security authority, according to the draft.

This may affect Chinese banks who want to buy servers from overseas companies, for example. Internet service providers should store collected data, including citizens’ personal information, on Chinese territory, and data that is stored overseas must undergo government security assessment, it said.

“Under the draft, foreign companies, such as Apple and Microsoft, will face stricter supervision in China,” Zhao said.

PTI