US Ambassador raises concern over China's newly-amended counter-espionage law

Beijing [China], May 7 : US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns has asked Beijing to clarify the newly-amended counter-espionage law which he says could make illegal some ordinary duties of American business people, academics and journalists in the country, Asia Times reported.

The National People's Congress (NPC) standing committee on April 26 passed an amendment to strengthen China's anti-spy law. The amended law will take 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 orgzation 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 orgzed 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.