China: Opened consultation on Counterespionage Law (Revised draft)

On 30 December 2022, a consultation was opened until 28 January 2023 on the Counterespionage Law (second reading draft), which is under consideration by China's National People's Congress (NPC). The second reading draft would alter the definition of "acts of espionage" to include stealing or otherwise illegal accessing or providing data related to national security and national interests. Providing information on cybersecurity vulnerabilities of criticial information infrastructure would also fall within the definition of an "act of espionage". Finally, the second reading draft would explicitly prohibit illegally obtaining or possessing data on state secrets.