China to launch security reviews on tech products

China will give a cyber security review to keep national security and protect public interest, the State Internet Information Office said on Thursday.

The review will target IT products, services and suppliers of information systems related to national security and public interest, according to a statment from the office.

The policy aims to prevent a supplier from taking advantage of its product to illegally control, disturb or shut down computer systems of its users, as well as gather, store, process or use information of its users, the statement said.

Companies that fail the vetting, no matter overseas or national, will be stopped from supplying their products and services in China, the office said.

Making sure technology used for the Internet and computer systems are "safe and under control" is vital to China's national security, economy, social developments and people's legitimate rights and interests, Jiang Jun, the office's spokesman, said on Thursday.

"For a long time, a few countries' governments and enterprises have made use of their monopoly in the market and technological fields to collect sensitive data and information on a large scale, which not only damaged users' interest, but also brought great threats to cyber space," Jiang said.

In recent years, China's government departments, social institutions, enterprises, universities and backbone networks of its telecom firms have suffered extensive invasion and wiretapping, he said.

A high-profile incident of document leakage in last June, which was developed by former Central Intelligence Agency contractor Edward Snowden, also rang the alarm for cyber security of many countries, he said, adding the case reminded people how crucial to the online security is to a country's security.

"The case also tells us that without cyber security, there's no national security," he said.

Now, China has had the world's most Internet users and the country has also realized to tighten cyber security measures, according to Jiang, adding the vetting will be effective on this occasion.

China is not the first country to adopt such security vetting, the statement said, adding the United State House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence conducted security investigation on Chinese IT firms in 2012.

The US administration also asks federal agencies to choose cloudy computing services from service providers that have passed its security review.

China's 2013 cyber attacks quantified

China firmly supports cyber security