China Adopts Strict Law for Protection of National Secrets

China’s first law to protect state secrets, a strict regulation that stipulates life sentences and even the death penalty for violators, was approved Monday, the New China News Agency reported.

The 35-article law protects national security and obliges all citizens and organizations to keep state secrets. The law will go into effect in May, replacing provisional regulations on state secrets that were issued in 1951. It was adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the official news agency said.

The news agency defined state secrets as “important decisions of national defense, diplomatic affairs, secret affairs concerning the national economic and social development and science and technology and activities related to state safety and to the investigation of crime.”