The National People's Congress (NPC), the national legislature of China, on Nov. 7 adopted a Cybersecurity Law it claims will safeguard sovereignty on cyber space, national security and the rights of citizens. The law will take effect in June 2017.

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The law mandates the central government led by the Communist Party of China to take measures to "monitor, defend and handle cybersecurity risks and threats originating from within the country or overseas sources, protecting key information infrastructure from attack, intrusion, disturbance and damage."

Efforts will also be made to punish criminal activities online and safeguard the order and security of cyberspace.

Individual users and organizations are not allowed to jeopardize security on the internet or use it to "damage national security, honor and interests," said the law.

Online activities that are attempts to overthrow the socialist system; split the nation; undermine national unity; advocate terrorism and extremism are all prohibited. The law also bans activities such as inciting ethnic hatred, discrimination and spreading violence and obscene information online.

The law was passed at the bimonthly session of the NPC Standing Committee on third reading.

The centralization of state control over information and technology is raising serious raising concerns among foreign companies operating in China. Foreign firms are now required to provide "technical support" to authorities for national security and criminal investigations.

The law also threatens to punish companies that allow unapproved information to circulate online.

Foreign firms are particularly incensed over the very broad list of sectors defined as part of China's "critical information infrastructure." Telecommunications, energy, transportation, information services and finance are subject to random security checks.

This means any company in these sectors "where the loss of data can harm the country's security" is subject to a possible review. But what these security reviews actually entail isn't clear in the law.

That vagueness has left foreign companies anxious about the future. Many oppose the legislation on the grounds that it limits their ability to do business in the country.

Tagschina, cybersecurity law, National People's Congress, Communist Party of China, Internet, cyversecurity