Though there are relatively few publicized instances where
foreign companies (or their P.R.C. subsidiaries or joint ventures)
or foreign individuals in China have formally been found to have
run afoul of the Law of the P.R.C. on Guarding State
Secrets ("State Secrets Law")1, the
consequences of doing so are significant. Specifically, the
Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several
Issues Concerning the Application of Law for Trial of Cases of
Stealing, Buying, or Unlawfully Supplying State Secrets or
Intelligence for Entities outside of the Territory of China
("Interpretation") notes that "[w]hoever steals,
spies into, buys or unlawfully supplies state secrets or
intelligence for entities outside of the Territory of China"
can, under certain circumstances, be given a lengthy prison term
or, potentially, in especially serious cases even the death
sentence.2 As such, foreign companies and individuals
that may be dealing with state secrets in China should be
