Peking will Staatsgeheimnisse stärker schützen

Peking will Staatsgeheimnisse noch geheimer halten als bisher. Hinter der Initiative könnte sich ein neuer Zensurvorstoß fürs Internet verbergen:

China is on the verge of requiring telecommunications companies and Internet service providers to halt and report leaks of what the government deems to be state secrets, the latest in a series of moves intended to strengthen the government’s control over private communications. The proposed amendment to the state secrets law, reported Tuesday by the state news media, defines a state secret broadly and loosely as information that, if disclosed, would damage China’s security or interests in political, economic, defense and other realms. The wording of the amendment, as cited by the state-controlled newspaper China Daily, suggested that Internet and telecommunications companies would have to take a more proactive stance in identifying leaks of state secrets and their sources. The paper said companies must detect, report and delete unauthorized disclosures. But reports by the state-run news agency Xinhua seemed less definitive about whether the companies must independently scour online transmissions for forbidden information or simply cooperate with the authorities if they suspect transgressions. According to Xinhua, when companies discover leaks, “information transmissions should be immediately stopped” and the authorities alerted.