Some internal laws of China may conflict with…

… the international principle, which is a foundation of sovereignty as stated in the Charter of the United Nations, of non-interference in internal affairs of other States.

Yes, of course other states do the same. Still, it is useful to have at least an idea of the exact scope of four laws about National Security that China has adopted in recent years, and have international relevance. As a purely qualitative example, here are a few articles of those laws.

From the National Intelligence Law of 2017:

Art. 7: “any organization and citizen shall, in accordance with the law, support, provide assistance, and cooperate in national intelligence work, and guard the secrecy of any national intelligence work that they are aware off. The State shall protect individuals and organizations that support, cooperate with, and collaborate in national intelligence work”

Art. 14: “The state intelligence work organization shall carry out, in turn, grants intelligence agencies authority to insist on this support: “state intelligence work organs, when legally carrying forth intelligence work, may demand that concerned organs, organizations, or citizens provide needed support, assistance, and cooperation.”

Art. 22 of the Counter-Espionage Law of 2014](https://www.pcpd.org.hk/english/news_events/whatison/files/cybersecurity_dec.pdf) is equally explicit:

“during the course of a counter-espionage investigation, relevant organizations and individuals’ must truthfully provide information and must not refuse. When State Security organs carry out the tasks of counter-espionage work in accordance with the law, and citizens and organizations that are obliged to provide facilities or other assistance according to the law refuse to do so, this constitutes an intention to obstruct the state security organs from carrying out the tasks of counter-espionage work according to law”.

Art. 28 of the new law on cybersecurity

“Network operators must provide technical assistance (wiretap access, ndr) when National Security and criminal investigations are involved”.

Finally, articles 21 and 31 of the same law say that:

Article 21: “The state encourages research and development, academic exchange, achievement transformation, and spreading the use of commercial cryptography, to complete a unified, open, competitive, and orderly market system for commercial cryptography, encouraging the development of the commercial cryptography industry….The state encourages technological cooperation on commercial cryptography to be conducted in the course of foreign investment and on the basis of the voluntariness principle and business rules ….Research, production, sale, service, import, and export of commercial cryptography must not endanger national security, the societal public interest, or the lawful rights and interests of others”.

Article 31: “Cryptography management departments and relevant departments are to establish systems for regulation of commercial cryptography, during and after the fact, that combine routine oversight and random sampling inspections, establish a unified platform for commercial cryptographyoversight and management information, advance the establishment of connections between regulation during and after the fact and the social credit system17, and strengthen commercial cryptography work units' self-discipline and public oversight”.

Source: Interview to Prof. Marco Mayer, cited here on May 3rd, 2020

(This post was drafted in May 2020, but only put online in August, because… my coronavirus reports, of course)