China's Cyber Security Law To Take Effect From June 2017

China’s cyber security law is set to take effect in June 2017 to counter hacking and terrorism threats.

The legislation is an "objective need" of China as a major internet power, a parliament official said.

China as a major internet power needs the legislation, a parliament official said. The law threatens to shut foreign technology companies out of various sectors deemed "critical", and includes contentious requirements for security reviews and for data to be stored on servers in China, Overseas critics of the law said.

The law is going to increase the restrictions on the communist country’s internet, which is already subject to world’s highly sophisticated online censorship and also it has been called as Great Firewall, Rights Advocates were quoted as saying by Reuters today.

The Internet was already connected to China's national security and development, Yang Heqing, an official on the National People's Congress standing committee, said.

"China is an internet power, and as one of the countries that have high internet security risks. Hence, it urgently needs to establish and perfect network security legal systems," he told reporters at the close of a bimonthly legislative meeting.

More than 40 global business groups petitioned Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in August, urging Beijing to amend what they said were controversial sections of the law. However, the the government officials responded that the laws are unlikely to interfere foreign interests.

The provisions remained in the final draft issued by the parliament, including requirements for critical information infrastructure operators to store personal information and important business data in China, provide unspecified "technical support" to security agencies, and pass national security reviews.

The companies have expressed fear that the law would require handing over of intellectual property or back doors within products in order to operate in China’s market. James Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, called the provisions "vague, ambiguous, and subject to broad interpretation by regulatory authorities."