China vows to ‘safeguard’ national security

BEIJING (AFP) – China will adopt wide-ranging security laws this year to “resolutely safeguard” its sovereignty, a top lawmaker vowed at a key legislative meeting yesterday, as President Xi Jinping’s government seeks to eliminate perceived threats to its rule.

The “Two Sessions” – parallel meetings of China’s rubberstamp parliament and political consultative body – offer a rare glimpse into the strategy of the Communist Party-led government for the year ahead.

Top legislator Zhao Leji yesterday promised that lawmakers would “resolutely safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests” as he laid out the agenda for the National People’s Congress (NPC) for the coming year.

“To modernize China’s system and capacity for national security,” he said, Beijing would enact “an emergency management law, an energy law, an atomic energy law, and a hazardous chemicals safety law.”

It will also revise “the National Defense Education Law and the Cybersecurity Law,” Zhao said in his report.

He did not offer more details about what the new laws would involve, nor when precisely they would be adopted.

The NPC is also set to introduce and amend laws in areas ranging from financial stability to preschool education and disease control.

“Military education and cybersecurity are clear priorities” for China’s legislators, Jean-Pierre Cabestan, professor and Chinese politics expert at Hong Kong University, told AFP. “They want to strengthen the legal framework in these areas, which is part of Xi’s own priorities.”

“Putting a heavy focus on national security legislation has been a key feature of the NPC’s legislative work during the Xi era,” Changhao Wei, founder of the NPC Observer website, told