China's counterterrorism law an internal matter: FM

Obama remarks reflect 'U.S. double standard in Internet surveillance'

China on Tuesday urged the U.S. to stop interfering in the country's counterterrorism law following U.S. President Barack Obama's recent criticism of China's plan to establish new cyber security rules.

"The formulation of the counterterrorism law is China's internal matter. We hope the U.S. can calmly and objectively handle it," China's foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying responded Tuesday.

Hua said China has always opposed Internet surveillance and supports the setting up of rules over the U.S.e of cyber space within the United Nations network.

In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Obama said he was concerned that China's first anti-terrorism law would affect foreign technology firms, including those from the U.S., and their clients' privacy.

Obama said he has raised the issue directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He speculated that China is creating the law to "snoop and keep track of all the U.S.ers of those [technological] services," and said China "has to change if they expect to do bU.S.iness with the U.S.."

China's parliamentary body has in the past week studied a second draft of the country's first anti-terrorism law and is expected to pass it in the coming weeks or months.

The new law requires companies to keep servers and U.S.er data within China, and to provide authorities with encryption keys, the passcodes that protect data.

Wang Guoxiang, an anti-terrorism expert at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that such legislation is necessary as Internet data collected through social media platforms are crucial State resources in the country's anti-terrorism research and counter measures.

Compared to the U.S., China lacks such laws and measures against cyber terrorism and creating them is progressing slowly, Wang said.

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times that Obama's remarks reflect U.S. double standards in Internet surveillance.

"The U.S. government's anti-terrorism measures and laws after the 9/11 attacks have drawn much controversy and criticism within the country," said Wu.

In his interview, Obama also said U.S. tech companies will not be willing to follow the law, adding that the legislation could hurt the Chinese economy in the long run.

"The U.S. government wants to influence the Chinese authorities to adjU.S.t their policy. But [Obama's strong-worded remarks] only presented the U.S. government's stance on the issue, after coming under pressure from bU.S.inessmen," Wu noted.

BU.S.iness lobby groups have asked the Obama administration and the European Commission to raise the issue in bilateral trade talks with China, the Financial Times reported.

Wu, however, does not believe Sino-U.S. relations will be affected, and said that the new rule would have no impact on foreign companies' interests.

"These companies have nothing to worry about as long as they abide by the law in China," said Wu.

Disagreements over cyber security have been a long-running issue and one of the major sticking points in Sino-U.S. ties.

Western governments, including in the U.S. and UK, have for years requested tech firms to disclose their encryption methods, with varying degrees of success.

Officials, including FBI director James Comey and National Security Agency director Michael S. Rogers, publicly warned Internet firms including Apple and Google late last year against U.S.ing encryption that law enforcement cannot break.

Demands for a specific counterterrorism law have been raised in wake of increasing terror attacks in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur AutonomoU.S. Region in recent years.