{"id":183914,"date":"2015-05-31T23:19:13","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T06:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=183914"},"modified":"2015-05-31T23:19:13","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T06:19:13","slug":"new-laws-focus-on-ideological-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2015\/05\/new-laws-focus-on-ideological-security\/","title":{"rendered":"New Laws Focus on “Ideological Security”"},"content":{"rendered":"
A trio of proposed laws under consideration by China’s National People’s Congress constitute, “the most expansive articulation yet of President Xi Jinping\u2019s vision of national security, and the widest interpretation of threats to the Communist Party and the state since the Mao era,” according to Edward Wong in the New York Times<\/strong><\/a>. The three laws\u2014which cover counterterrorism<\/a>, management of foreign NGOs<\/a>, and national security<\/a>\u2014all relate to what Wong calls “ideological security.” As he writes:<\/p>\n Perhaps the most interesting question is why Mr. Xi thinks he needs such laws. Existing laws already enshrine Communist Party power and criminalize any act deemed to encourage \u201csubversion of state power.\u201d<\/p>\n But the new laws provide a firmer legal framework for controlling civil society and Western organizations, scholars say.<\/p>\n The most ambitious of the three, the national security law, solidifies Mr. Xi\u2019s authority over national security by placing a central organ \u2014 likely to be the National Security Commission that Mr. Xi founded \u2014 in charge of all security matters. An April 23 article in People\u2019s Daily, the official party newspaper, said the new draft of the security law reflected \u201cGeneral Secretary Xi Jinping\u2019s spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n Another reason Mr. Xi wants these laws is more abstract, scholars say. Party ideology no longer plays a central role in the lives of ordinary Chinese the way it did in the Mao era, so the party needs to promote and institutionalize the ideology by whatever means it can, including by writing it into law. That is especially true under Mr. Xi, who since the day he took office in 2012 has promoted old-school party ideology in a way not seen since the aftermath of the June 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests around Tiananmen Square in Beijing. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n