National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic of China

The National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic of China governs China's intelligence and security apparatus. It is the first law made public in China which is related to China's national intelligence agencies. The law does not specifically name any organizations to which it applies. According to the law, "everyone is responsible for state security" which is in line with China's state security legal structure as a whole. The final draft of the law on 16 May 2017 was toned down as compared to previous versions. The National People's Congress passed the law on 27 June 2017. The law was updated on 27 April 2018.

The passage of the National Intelligence Law is part of a larger effort by the Chinese central government to strengthen its security legislation. In 2014, China passed a law on counterespionage, in 2015 a law on national security and another on counter-terrorism, in 2016 a law on cybersecurity and foreign NGO management, among others.

Provisions
The most controversial sections of the law is Article 7. Gu Bin of the Beijing Foreign Studies University wrote his opinion in the Financial Times that Article 7 "does not authorize pre-emptive spying" and "national intelligence work must be defensive". Murray Scot Tanner, currently an American defense policy analyst, made a counterargument in Lawfare that the National Intelligence Law changes Chinese citizen's legal obligations from intelligence 'defense' to 'offense'. "Article 7: All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.

Article 10: As necessary for their work, national intelligence work institutions are to use the necessary means, tactics, and channels to carry out intelligence efforts, domestically and abroad.

Article 18: As required for work, and in accordance with relevant national provisions, national intelligence work institutions may ask organs such as for customs and entry-exit border inspection to provide facilitation such as exemptions from inspection."

Reaction
Experts argue that the law forces Chinese telecommunications companies with operations overseas such as Huawei to hand over data to Chinese government regardless of which country that data came from. To counteract perceived concerns, Huawei, in May 2018, submitted legal opinion by Chinese law firm Zhong Lun, which among other things stated that "Huawei’s subsidiaries and employees outside of China are not subject to the territorial jurisdiction of the National Intelligence Law". A report by Mannheimer Swartling, a Sweden-based law firm, concluded that "NIL applies to all Chinese citizens", and even overseas subsidiaries of global Chinese companies "could be subject to NIL".