Beijing passes tough new intelligence law
Navy launches destroyer
BEIJING, June 28, (Agencies): China’s legislature passed a new national intelligence law on Tuesday after an unusually brief round of discussions, granting authorities new powers to monitor suspects, raid premises, seize vehicles and devices and operate overseas.
President Xi Jinping has overseen a raft of legislation to bolster national security against perceived threats from both within and outside China.
The government gained new powers with a national security law passed in 2014, followed by measures on counter-terrorism, the management of foreign nongovernment bodies and cyber security, among other subjects.
On Tuesday, the standing committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) passed the law, the largely rubber stamp body said in a short statement on its website. The law will go into effect on Wednesday, it said.
A draft was released for one round of public consultation that lasted three weeks. Laws are often subject to at least two rounds of consultation, or more if controversial.
The legislation was also passed after only two rounds of discussion by parliament’s standing committee. Laws often go through three or more rounds.
State news agency Xinhua said last week the law was “needed to ensure the nation’s security interests are met”.
Intelligence work needs to be performed both within and outside China, and foreign groups and individuals who damage national security must be investigated, according to the law, which was also carried on parliament’s website.
The law will give authorities new legal grounds to monitor and investigate foreign and domestic individuals and bodies in order to protect national security.
Chinese activists have said they fear intensified state surveillance. The law says authorities will also be able to propose customs and border inspections or “quarantine”, as well as “administrative detention” of up to 15 days for those who obstruct their work or leak related state secrets.
Xi
China’s navy launches destroyer:
China’s increasingly powerful navy launched its most advanced domestically produced destroyer on Wednesday, at a time of rising competition with other naval powers such as the United States, Japan and India.
The first 10,000-ton Type 055 entered the water at Shanghai’s Jiangnan Shipyard on Wednesday morning, the navy said in a statement.
It said the ship is equipped with the latest air, missile, ship and submarine defense systems. China is believed to be planning to produce four of the ships.
“The launch of this ship signifies that our nation’s development of destroyers has reached a new stage,” the navy said.
A photo on the navy’s website showed multicolored streamers being shot out of tubes while sailors and shipyard workers stood dockside next to a massive Chinese flag. It said the chief of the People’s Liberation Army’s General Armaments Department, Zhang Youxia, presided over the ceremony, in which a bottle of champagne was broken over the ship’s bow.
The Type 055 is significantly larger than China’s other modern destroyer, the Type 052, representing the rising sophistication of China’s defense industries. Once heavily dependent on foreign technology, China in April launched its first aircraft carrier built entirely on its own, based on an earlier Ukrainian model.
In terms of displacement, it is roughly equivalent to the Arleigh Burke class of destroyer.
China’s navy is undergoing an ambitious expansion and is projected to have a total of 265-273 warships, submarines and logistics vessels by 2020, according to the Washington, DC-based Center for Naval Analysis. That compares with 275 deployable battle force ships presently in the US Navy, China’s primary rival in the Asia Pacific, with the once-yawning gap between the two narrowing rapidly.
China, Kyrgyzstan hold exercises:
Chinese and Kyrgyzstan border forces held exercises on Tuesday in China’s Xinjiang region to bolster defences against the smuggling of weapons, China’s state media reported.
China has stepped up security in Xinjiang in its far west amid fears of attacks by militants from the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority. A car bomber attacked the Chinese embassy in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek last year.
Helicopters, armoured jeeps and 700 border police officers from the neighbours took part in the exercise in Xinjiang’s Kirgiz Prefecture, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
The drills were observed by officials from all countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security bloc jointly led by China and Russia, that includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan, it said.
Chinese officer Chen Dingwu, who was in charge of he exercise, told Xinhua the troops were simulating weapons smuggling by militants from Kyrgyzstan into China.
Video footage broadcast by China’s state media showed a police van cutting off a mini-bus and then speedily reversing away through simulated explosions as an attacker struck the van’s windshield with a baton.
Other footage showed helicopters firing what appeared to be live missiles at a mountaintop target, jeeps mounted with machineguns subjected to simulated ambushes, and officers practising riot control with police dogs.
China-Pak corridor going ‘smoothly’:
Pakistan has been smoothly implementing an ambitious plan to build an economic corridor with China, despite experiencing some challenges, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Wednesday.
China has promised $57 billion in investment in projects along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, part of its ambitious Belt and Road plan linking China with the Middle East and Europe.
Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road project in 2013, but it is still short on specifics.
“We are smoothly implementing and we are very satisfied with the speed of the implementation,” Iqbal, the Islamabad lead on the project, told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Chinese city of Dalian.