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Chinese envoy disagrees with UN human rights chief's comments on its security law

Xinhua, July 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

China's envoy to the UN office in Geneva has expressed disagreement with relevant comments by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday on the country's National Security Law.

Ambassador Wu Hailong, China's Permanent Representative to the UN Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland, said it was a common practice among countries to enact laws on national security.

China disagreed with the High Commissioner's comment that the new security law defined the meaning of national security extremely broadly, Wu wrote to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

Wu said that under the new circumstances, China was faced with severe challenges in its national security. When it came to protect the national core interests, any government would stand firm and not leave any room for disputes, compromises and interference and China was no exception, he said.

The Chinese representative said that China completely disagreed with what the High Commissioner's comments that the law "leaves the door wide open to further restrictions of rights and freedoms of Chinese citizens."

He pointed out that as a matter of fact, the new security law took the security of the people as its target. As provided by Article 7 and Article 43, the safeguard of national security should abide by the Constitution and the law, and protect the right and freedom of citizens according to the law, said Wu.

He said that these provisions indicated that the new security law was people-centered and human rights-oriented.

Wu refuted the High Commissioner's comment on the lack of independent supervision of the law, saying the allegation was unfounded.

According to Article 46 of the law, "the State establishes national security work supervision, inspection and accountability mechanism" and China was cautious about evaluating threats of national security, he noted.

Wu said that, while it is up to the State to implement the security law, the law also clearly defines rights and obligations of individual citizens and organizations concerning national security, as provided for in Article 77.

The citizens and organizations who support or assist national security operations will be protected by the law, he added.

Wu emphasized that "no national security, no human rights," and "nobody knows better than China about the security risks it faces, and nobody cares more than China about its people's human rights."

Wu hoped that the High Commissioner could develop a comprehensive and objective understanding of the law. Endi