China has passed a sweeping law tightening restrictions on internet freedoms, a contentious move that foreign businesses say threatens to shut them out of one of the world’s biggest technology markets.
Overseas groups have been lobbying Beijing to amend the cyber security law since it was first mooted in 2014 but the final version, which was adopted yesterday, left most of the controversial sections intact.
Provisions in the new rules, which come into effect next June, require operators of “critical information infrastructure” to store certain personal and business data in China, undergo national security reviews and assist the country’s security agencies.