China's first counter-terrorism law

China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the top organ of China’s parliament has adopted the country’s first counter-terrorism law. The legislation was approved with large majority at the end of a week-long bimonthly session China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee. Key facts The law expanded the definition of the term terrorism and is the latest attempt of China to address terrorism at home and help maintain world security. The law grants overarching powers to security agencies and also allows the military to venture overseas on counter-terror operations. Under the new law a separate clause makes terrorism a crime including fabricating it and disseminating information on fabricated terrorist incidents. The law allows news media only to report on the personal details of on-scene workers, hostages or authorities’ response to terrorist activities and it will require approval from counter-terrorism authorities. It is mandatory for technology firms to give sensitive data like encryption keys to the government when asked for under this law.