Hello, I'm David Plott, Emlex's managing editor for Asia, coming to you today from our Bureau in Hong Kong.

Welcome to this latest in Emlex's ongoing series of podcasts. Today we're looking at a China story that's been developing for a while now.

It involves the Internet and China's plans for making the online world more secure.

Those plans are about to become a reality in just over a week from now.

On June 1st, China's new cybersecurity law goes into effect.

On the face of it, the law is all about fighting cybercrime,

and it comes hot on the heels of a worldwide ransomware attack

that took place just a couple of weeks ago. But China's new law has been in the works for

quite some time, and it hasn't been without its critics. Here with me now to talk about China's

new cybersecurity law is Em-lex correspondent Xu Wan.

Welcome to this podcast, Shuan.

Thanks, David.

Shuan, give us a little background on this new law.

How long has it been in the making and what does it aim to do?

Sure. In 2014, China set up a lead office for cyberspace affairs to coordinate cybersecurity issues.

What that office works across different industries and drafts policies relevant to those industries.

Also in 2014, the phrase to protect cybersecurity was mentioned for the first time in China's

annual government activity report. The Chinese government is quite keen on something it describes

as cyber sovereignty, which the cybersecurity law is designed to enhance. Article 1 of the law

says it aims to protect internet security, national security,

the public interest, and legal rights of citizens, legal persons, and organizations. Well,

actually, China already had laws that dealt with information security, such as regulations on

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