President Xi Jinping (習近平) delivered a keynote speech at the World Internet Conference, in Wuzhen, Zhejiang (浙江) province last week, in defence of China’s tight censorship of cyberspace. He laid out his vision for global internet governance, in particular emphasising that cyberspace is not beyond the rule of law and efforts must be made to build a sound legal order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of internet users.

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Every time China is accused of curbing freedom of expression in cyberspace, Beijing argues that such freedom requires limits and that it manages – rather than censors – cyberspace, in accordance with the law. Since “the rule of law” has become a motto of the Communist Party, one may wonder what policies China will put in place to address the internet risks and whether criticism of China’s cyberspace censorship is justified. This makes it all the more important to carefully study the draft cybersecurity law it released in July.

A high point of the cybersecurity bill is the leadership role awarded to the Cyberspace Administration of China. As such, the agency will be elevated to a powerful internet regulator, with responsibility for administering, coordinating and supervising cyberspace affairs; other public offices will play only subordinate roles.

The agency is headed by Lu Wei, who is also deputy head of the Propaganda Department, a party organ in charge of ideology. Lu’s position within the party shows that the internet regulator is focused on cyberspace censorship above all.

Close scrutiny of the draft law underscores that censorship. While Articles 34 to 39 include measures designed to protect personal information, Articles 40 to 43 concern the duties of internet service operators and the powers of government agencies to stop or block the transmission of any – personal or non-personal – information prohibited by law. Given that all these provisions are in one chapter titled “internet information security”, it is questionable whether their real purpose is to protect cyberspace privacy or implement censorship.

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The answer may be found in a 2013 speech by Lu, who outlined the four aspects of the Chinese concept of cybersecurity: security of cyberspace sovereignty; security of internet information; security of privacy in cyberspace; and security of information technology. Among them, the third aspect deserves special attention. Fundamental rights such as privacy are typically considered defensive rights of the people against interventions of the state. Since privacy (of the people) and security (of the state) are by nature at odds, they cannot, in most cases, be reconciled. But Lu, who coined the term “security of privacy”, seems to see no contradiction between them. If history is any indication, when the two fundamental human values – security and liberty – are conflated, the latter usually has little chance of survival.

Moreover, while there are many obligations imposed on internet service providers and internet users – and many powers granted to the government – there are few provisions aimed at human rights protection. The draft law appears only to address questions of how the government can govern cyberspace and how companies and individuals need to cooperate.