The Cryptography Law entered into force on 1 Jan. 2020.

There are 46 articles in total. For the purpose of this Law, the term “cryptography” refers to products, technologies and services for encryption protection or security authentication of information, etc.

This Law stipulates the administration of three categories of encryption, i.e. core encryption, ordinary encryption and commercial encryption. Core and ordinary encryption are used to protect state secrets, while commercial encryption is used by citizens and enterprises to protect information other than state secrets. Among others, the commercial encryption service of specific network products should be subject to mandatory authentication and security assessment.

The office of the CPC Central Cryptology Leading Group is the policymaker in the cryptology field, while the cryptology administration at different levels is the administrative department.