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China Daily E-paper
Op-Ed Contributors
Guard against economic spies
By Ou Chengzhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-13 08:17
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A number of countries in the world have taken effective measures to tighten the protection of economic and commercial secrets. The US Congress passed the Economic Espionage Act in 1996 to protect the country's commercial secrets. A special computer information agency was also set up to work with the US National Security Agency and other information and law enforcement agencies to tighten information protection. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry planned not long ago to draft a new law to punish perpetrators of commercial espionage and theft in cases where the country's criminal law cannot reach.
Compared with Western countries, China has made slow progress in legislation on economic and commercial information protection. The country's extant laws are increasingly inadequate for protecting its commercial secrecy. In the country's Law for Countering Unfair Competition, which took effect in 1993, the harshest punishment consists of urging violators to stop their criminal acts and fining them 10,000-200,000 yuan, according to the extent of violations. The country's Patent Law stops short of measures against economic espionage. The newly amended Criminal Law lists commercial secrecy violations as a new crime, but it lacks explicit definitions on the scope of commercial secrets infringements as well as punitive measures.
As the world's third-largest economy, China has become increasingly interdependent with the world economy and a lot of its oil and mineral resources depend on imports. The country's gap with some developed countries in aerospace, network, telecommunications, biological and new materials technology is narrowing. Under these circumstances, the country should keep on high alert when others increasingly covet its economic and commercial secrets.
The authorities should fully realize the significance of protecting the country's commercial secrets and accelerate anti-commercial espionage legislation for the sake of its economic security and in the interest of its domestic enterprises.
The author is a Tianjin-based member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
(China Daily 04/13/2010 page8)
