NEW FRONTIERS
China's first national security law took effect in 1993 and primarily regulated the work of national security agencies, whose major duty is counterespionage. The original law was renamed the Counterespionage Law in November.
Drafts of the new national security legislation were first unveiled last year and covered a much broader spectrum than its predecessor.
The version adopted Wednesday has an even wider scope, involving activities and assets in space, the ocean deep and polar regions.
Li Zhong said the revision was justified given the country's increasing footprint in these "new frontiers".
China's multi-billion-dollar space program, which landed a rover on the moon, is a source of surging national pride in the country and aims to put a permanent manned space station into service around 2022.
Jiaolong, the country's most advanced manned submersible, achieved a record dive depth of more than 7,000 meters in 2012. China also has four polar stations in Antarctica with a fifth planned in the Victoria Land east of the continent.
"As China's reach expands, so does the scope of its definition of national security," Li said, pointing to similar legislation in the United States, Japan, Russia and Europe since the 1980s.
Xiao also said China's exploration has helped the country better understand and utilize resources in new regions, and thus are "conducive to the common interests of mankind."
The country has the right to protect its activities, assets and personnel while operating on these new frontiers, Xiao said.
CYBER SECURITY
One key element of the new national security law is a clause on cyberspace sovereignty.
China will strengthen its ability to protect information, while furthering Internet and IT research, development and application, the law states.
An Internet and information security system will be established to ensure cyberspace security, increase innovation, speed up development of "strategic" technology and beef up intellectual property protection and application, it says.
Much of the new law's extensive text is couched in similarly general terms.
Li Zhong said this could leave ample room for more detailed regulations in respective fields in the future.
Already, Chinese lawmakers are reviewing a 68-article cyber security draft law with the goal of "safeguarding cyberspace sovereignty and national security".
Cyber security is closely linked to security in the financial and information sector. All countries have the obligation to obtain national security within their jurisdiction, Li said.
Xiao said the Internet is another important aspect of the nation's infrastructure.
"Although the Internet is in a sense without borders, it still depends on physical infrastructure. The Internet within the People's Republic of China is subject to the country's sovereignty," he said.
"China respects other countries' sovereignty in the domain of cyber security, and expects them to respect China as well in the same regard."
