Beijing, December 27

China today adopted its first counter-terrorism law that grants overarching powers to security agencies, allows the military to venture overseas on counter-terror operations and requires technology firms to give sensitive data like encryption keys to the government.All 159 legislators of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee adopted the draft law earlier approved by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).China had provisions to counter terror threats in its Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Emergency Response Law, but never had a dedicated law to counter terrorism. The NPC submitted the first draft of the Anti-Terror Law for review in October 2014 and second in February 2015. — Agencies