China: Adopted Revised Counterespionage Law

On 26 April 2023, the revised Counterespionage Law was adopted by China's National People's Congress (NPC). The revised Law alters the definition of "acts of espionage" to include stealing or otherwise illegal accessing or providing data related to national security and national interests. Further, the revised Law explicitly prohibits illegally obtaining or possessing data on state secrets. Finally, under the revised Law, the orchestration of cyber attacks into state organs and critical information infrastructure fall under the definition of "acts of espionage". The final adopted version of this provision differs from previous versions under consideration, which would have instead made the provision of information on cybersecurity vulnerabilities of criticial information infrastructure into acts of espionage. The revised Law enters into effect on 1 July 2023.