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The draft law, which could require technology
firms to install "backdoors" in products or hand over sensitive
information such as encryption keys to the government, has been
criticized by some Western leaders and business groups.
U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview with Reuters on
March 2 that he had raised concern about the law directly with
Chinese President Xi Jinping.
White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel said on
Thursday that China had suspended a review process for the law.
"Currently, the deliberation on this law is ongoing," Foreign
Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular news briefing,
adding that China was willing to "communicate with relevant
parties" on the drafting.
"China will formulate its anti-terrorism law based on its own
counter-terrorism needs, and protect national security. This is
an important necessity of China's current national development,"
Hong said.
China will maintain communication to ensure the law also fits
international practice, he said.
The initial draft of the law, published by the National People's
Congress late last year, requires companies to also keep servers
and user data within China, supply law enforcement authorities
with communications records and censor terrorism-related
Internet content.
Parliamentary spokeswoman Fu Ying has said many Western
governments, including the United States, had made similar
requests for encryption keys and Chinese companies operating in
the United States had long been subject to intense security
checks.
The legitimate interests of technology firms would not be
affected, she said.
Although the counter-terrorism provisions would apply to both
domestic and foreign technologies, officials in Washington and
Western business lobbies argue the law, combined with new
banking rules and a slew of anti-trust investigations, amount to
unfair regulatory pressure targeting foreign companies.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
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