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March 4, 2015

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China allays US anti-terror concerns

CHINA yesterday pushed back at the US over concerns that proposed anti-terror legislation would give the Chinese government sweeping powers to police electronic communications and marginalize foreign companies fighting for a share of China’s US$465 billion technology market. It said the law was designed to address domestic security issues only.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the law was necessary to fight terrorism.

Last month, four US Cabinet members, including Secretary of State John Kerry, wrote to their Chinese counterparts expressing “serious concerns” about the draft anti-terror law and rules for technology procurement at Chinese banks.

Hua said that “not too long ago, it was disclosed that some countries embedded spying software for surveillance in SIM card makers.” The statement was an apparent reference to reports that European SIM maker Gemalto had suffered hacking attacks believed to have been conducted by US and British intelligence agencies.

“All countries are paying close attention to that and are taking measures to secure their own information security; this is beyond reproach,” Hua said, adding that China “opposes using information technology superiority or the convenience of supplying information technology products to conduct cyber-surveillance.”

China’s moves to strengthen cybersecurity come in the wake of revelations of widespread US government surveillance and have raised questions about the extent to which government surveillance will interfere with the ability of private companies to go global.

“We just did what the Americans have already done,” said Shen Dingli, director of Fudan University’s Center for American Studies. “You could choose to leave, leaving the opportunity of making money from 1.3 billion people. We have substitutes.”

According to the latest draft of the law, network operators and service providers doing business in China would have to build in “back doors” for government surveillance, hand over encryption keys to Chinese authorities and store user data within China.

Ted Moran, an international business and finance professor at Georgetown University, said US laws do all of that and more, giving the US government the reach to pursue user data stored in other countries.

“There’s all kinds of hypocrisy going on here,” he said.

He said there is more oversight enshrined in US law. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, for example, requires telecom carriers to allow law enforcement agencies to conduct electronic surveillance pursuant to a court order.

Business groups worry that the language in China’s anti-terror law is so broad it could undermine the ability of US companies to send encrypted e-mails or operate the kind of private networks commonly used to secure communications.

“In addressing law enforcement and security objectives, governments should consider the impact on economic security and growth, global commerce and users’ privacy and security,” said Jacob Parker, chief representative of the US-China Business Council in Shanghai.

The anti-terror law comes after regulations that require Chinese banks to have 75 percent of IT infrastructure certified “secure and controllable” by 2019.




 

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