SINCE taking over as China’s leader in 2012, President Xi Jinping has shown an unusual preoccupation with challenges to the country’s security. A year later, to handle these, he set up a new national security commission and made himself chief of it. On July 1st the country’s parliament helped him further by adopting a new law on national security. It conveys the remarkable range of Mr Xi’s worries, with potential threats seen to be emanating from sources as diverse as the internet, culture, education and outer space. For its insight into the often opaque psychology of China’s elite, the bill will be welcomed—not so, however, by anyone with grievances against the Communist Party.
The law is a dense 6,900 characters of party-speak, with little in the way of detail (not even any specific punishments), but plenty of obligations such as to “defend the fundamental interests of the people” and take “all measures necessary” to protect the country. Many countries, including America and India, have laws on national security. But the variety of concerns covered in China’s is striking, as is the vagueness of its language (an exception is that...Continue reading
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