国际关系学院原院长：《反间谍法》精准“反间谍”、更好“促发展”

On the 10th anniversary of the initiation of the overall national security outlook this year, Tao Jian, former president of the University of International Relations, shares his views on the significance of the outlook with China Daily.

In his eyes, the biggest achievement of the outlook is its guidance in navigating the rapidly changing international landscape, emphasizing the dialectical link between development and security.

Espionage poses a big threat to national security and undermines the interests of a country. It is therefore an internationally recognized practice for sovereign nations to enact legislation preventing and combating espionage activities and safeguarding national security.

Intelligence agencies of dozens of countries have been conducting espionage activities against China. And the considerable number of espionage cases China’s national security agencies uncover every year represent only a “tip of the iceberg”.

Espionage activities pose a significant threat to China, as they target the core departments of the Party, the government and the military, as well as new fields such as biological and genetic information.

In fact, China’s anti-espionage legislation lags behind that of Western countries. As such, China needs to strengthen the legal and operational systems to better safeguard national security.

Currently, a portion of the political, academic, business, and media circles in the US have unnecessarily escalated certain issues involving China, turning what are essentially matters of pure business competition into supposed threats to US national security.

The US has politicized, weaponized, and broadly securitized issues related to Sino-US economic and trade relations, technology, and even personnel exchanges, bringing unnecessary obstacles to normal exchanges between the two countries, as well as globally.

The US monitors all countries worldwide, including its allies; this fact has long been evident. By targeting China in this manner, the US may inadvertently sow seeds of doubt among its allies and other countries that heavily rely on US electronic products, automobiles, and aircraft.

In response to some Western countries’ efforts to “decouple” from the Chinese economy, China says it does not engage in broad securitization, nor does it intend to close the door to the world; instead, it aims to further expand its opening-up.