The Cybersecurity Law of China is one of the three pillars in the country’s cybersecurity governance system, together with the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law. These three laws stipulate and regulate relevant actions and activities across all sectors. Since its implementation on June 1, 2017, the Cybersecurity Law is considered by Chinese experts to have played an important role in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests in cyberspace, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of all parties in cyberspace, and promoting the healthy development of informationization of the economy and society.

However, as the fast development and changes of information technologies, and the wider penetration of internet applications into people’s daily lives, the society and all forms of production activities, new types of cybersecurity risks and violations emerge in recent years. Therefore, it is necessary to revise and optimize the Cybersecurity Law after 8 years of implementation to be up to date, and to better coordinate with other regulations and laws in the legal system.

The revision of the Cybersecurity Law has been carried out for quite a period of time and an earlier comment-seeking round took place earlier this year in March. The purpose is to strengthen the legal responsibilities for cybersecurity, increase the penalties for illegal acts, and improve the organic connection with relevant laws. The revision also intends to further specify the legal responsibilities for different types of illegal acts, such as network operation security and network information security, scientifically.