Cyber surveillance regulations: Is the United States asking China to accept a double standard?

Key Points

• China’s proposed counterterrorism law, which applies to all information technology (IT) companies operating in China, and US “legal-intercept” regulations, which govern all IT companies operating in the United States, are officially acknowledged frameworks to counter terrorist and criminal behavior.
• Despite the similarities in these regulations, President Obama has criticized China’s law.
• The US must prepare to see practices that it has already adopted become prevalent elsewhere or be ready to modify US surveillance behaviors that US authorities do not want to see spreading around the globe.

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Beijing is abuzz with cybersecurity proposals. Amidst rumored regulations giving preference to companies that use domestically produced technology, and with the removal of Cisco and Apple from the central government’s authorized-procurement list, the Chinese government recently made public the draft of a new counterterrorism law that applies to all information technology (IT) companies operating in China.[1] The draft has been published on China’s National People’s Congress website, and the public is invited to submit comments. President Obama went out of his way to criticize the counterterrorism law, saying that “This is something they are going to have to change if they are to do business with the United States.”[2]

Yet, Chinese counterterrorism regulations mirror US “legal intercept” regulations that govern all IT companies operating in the US. Is America calling for other nations—including China—to accept a double standard?

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Notes

1. The practical challenges of implementing such “buy Chinese” provisions was illustrated recently when China’s bank regulator suspended new cybersecurity rules that would have required banks to replace foreign products with domestic alternatives. See Michael Martina and Gerry Shih, “China Suspends Bank-Technology Rules that Sparked Backlash,” Reuters, April 17, 2015, http://ift.tt/1yLTodv; and Simon Denyer, “China Removes Top U.S. Tech Firms from Government Purchasing List,” Washington Post, February 27, 2015.
2. Jeff Mason, “Exclusive: Obama Sharply Criticizes China’s Plans for New Technology Rules,” Reuters, March 2, 2015, http://ift.tt/1Iyy0bs.

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