Redefine state secrets

We know little about the draft revision of the State Secrets Law, except that the National People's Congress Standing Committee is reviewing it. And, that the revision is intended to reinforce protection of state secrets.

The 1989 State Secrets Law is obsolete and deserves to be transformed. It is a one-sided legislation under which citizens have only obligations. In theory, government institutions, should they choose to do so, have the authority to label everything as State secrets. And, citizens, once prosecuted on the ground of violating State secrets, can expect no legal relief. That not only severely compromises the citizens' right to know but constitutes a destructive threat to civil rights in the broader sense.

The promise of the one-year-old Ordinance on Government Information Disclosure (OGID) appeared illusory precisely because of that 20-year-old law. In the legislative sense, the law commands higher authority than a government decree. The pretty flowers of the OGID would never bear the promised fruit without this law being updated.