과학기술과 국가안보 — 중국 개정 국가기밀보호법을 중심으로 —

China’s revised Law on Guarding State Secrets will come into effect from May 2024. This law was enacted in accordance with the Constitution to protect state secrets and safeguard national security and interests. Since this law was enacted in 1988, it has been revised once in 2010, and the second revision takes effect this year. Recently, the domestic and international situation surrounding China has changed rapidly, and new fields of science and technology have rapidly emerged. As a result, the importance of technological independence for protecting state secrets has increased. So the second revision was made after about 14 years. China announced the concept of holistic national security in 2014. Since then, the scope of national security has been expanded in all directions, and security legislation to support this has been implemented. The revised Law on Guarding State Secrets, which takes effect in May of this year, is also an extension of this. The protection of science and technology is stated as the main purpose of the revision. However, concerns were raised that Chinese lawmakers have expanded this law for the first time since 2010, widening the scope of restricted sensitive information to “work secrets”. Risks must be reduced by carefully examining the relevant policies and legislation of the Chinese authorities. In Korea, revision of the criminal law regarding espionage is currently in progress. Recently, nationalism has spread, and allies also act according to their interests. Taking this into consideration, revision is necessary. In particular, the outflow of core technologies overseas is directly related to national security issues. Therefore, we must push for systematic legislation to protect comprehensive security.