BEIJING - Chinese lawmakers have expanded Beijing’s state secrets law for the first time since 2010, widening the scope of restricted sensitive information to “work secrets”, according to a full text of the law published online, state media reported.

China’s top legislative body passed the revised Law on Guarding State Secrets on Feb 27 and it will take effect from May 1, Xinhua reported.

Analysts say the expanded law is further evidence of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s increased focus on national security, which has led to a wide-ranging update to Beijing’s anti-espionage law in April 2023 that some countries fear could be used to punish regular business activities.

Raids in 2023 by the Chinese police on several management consultancies, including Mintz Group and Bain & Co, have raised concerns among the foreign business community in China, and a Japanese pharmaceutical executive has been detained in Beijing on espionage allegations since March 2023.

State secrets currently involve areas ranging from government and Communist Party decision-making to military and diplomatic activities, as well as economic development, science and technology.

The update to the state secrets law requires government agencies and work units to protect pieces of information “that are not state secrets but will cause certain adverse effects if leaked”. 

It added that rules on the specific management of work secrets would be released separately, without giving a date.

Law Professor Ryan Mitchell at the University of Hong Kong said the addition of “work secrets” appears to broaden what he called an already broad scope of the law’s application.

“It seems likely that this change is intended to avoid leaking of information regarding the organisational structure and decision-making hierarchy of state institutions,” he said.

The revised law would “strengthen the systematisation, comprehensiveness and synergy” of the set of laws concerning national security and state secrets, an unnamed official from the State Secrets Bureau was quoted in Xinhua as saying.

“This revision... has clearly written the party’s management of secrecy into the law,” the official said, adding that online operators should “cooperate with relevant departments in investigating and handling cases suspected of leaking state secrets”.

The legislation also “strengthens” coordination with China’s Data Security Law for the management of confidential data, the official said.

The Ministry of State Security has increasingly taken to its official WeChat social media account since 2023 to warn the public to stay vigilant against foreign espionage efforts. REUTERS