Law set to go into effect July 1 expands definition of espionage in ways some fear could include DPRK-related activities
Ifang Bremer June 29, 2023
China’s plans to implement a new anti-espionage law from next month could create additional risks for organizations working near the North Korean border, while making it more difficult for defectors to escape, experts told NK News this week.
In April, Beijing promulgated a new law that expands the definition of espionage to include the theft or acquisition of not only state secrets but any “documents, data, materials or items related to national security and interests,” without specifying what national security entails.
The “Counter-espionage Law of the People’s Republic of China” is set to go into effect on July 1.
Eric Foley, CEO of the nongovernmental organization Voice of the Martyrs Korea, told NK News he is concerned the new law will affect his not only organization’s efforts to send Bibles into the DPRK but humanitarian organizations as well.
“Article 2 of the new law talks about the ‘holistic view of national security,’” he said, “indicating that groups doing basic, straightforward humanitarian aid in China should be aware that they’ve now been lumped into the same category as religious groups like ours, who are regrettably considered by the Chinese government, without cause, to be working against China’s national interest.”
Foley added that the law seeks to provide “formal legal backing for ending the work of any ‘...
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