China Releases Draft Encryption Law for Public Comment

On April 13, 2017, China’s State Cryptography Administration (“SCA”) published a draft Encryption Law (“the draft Law”) for public comment.

After several years of drafting, the draft Law, if enacted as drafted, would be the first Chinese statute to systematically address encryption, covering “the research, production, management, import and export, testing, authentication, use, and regulation of encryption.” China has long regulated the import, export, sale, use, and scientific research of “commercial” encryption. The draft Law, however, provides rules for three categories of encryption—“ordinary” encryption, “core” encryption, and “commercial” encryption—with a view to establishing a uniform regulatory framework that would govern all types of encryption and providing SCA with greater enforcement authority.