China’s top legislature on Tuesday adopted a sweeping new national security law touching on everything from the military and economy to the environment, religion, the Internet, food safety and space exploration, saying the country needed to bolster legal measures in the face of “ever-growing security challenges.”
But critics fear the broadly worded law could be used to stifle dissent, reinforce censorship and impose new constraints on tech companies and other businesses.
The law is one of three pieces of legislation promulgated in recent months that aim to bolster China’s security – and strengthen ideological control over the public.