Case Description

Recently, relevant departments have taken criminal coercive measures against a Japanese citizen on suspicion of engaging in espionage activities. In recent years, typical cases of endangering national security announced by national security agencies, procuratorial agencies, courts, and others have shown that in reality, "spies" are not as skilled as those portrayed in movies and TV dramas who steal secret intelligence from other countries. On the contrary, most of them are ordinary workers or managers of enterprises and institutions.

Lawyer Analysis

As is well known, espionage endangers a country's national security, and countries around the world classify it as a criminal offense and punish it. The Criminal Law of our country stipulates "espionage crime", "crime of stealing, spying, buying, illegally providing state secrets and information for foreign countries" and other espionage crimes. Although the above-mentioned espionage crimes are committed by natural persons who have reached the age of 16 and have criminal responsibility, enterprises are not the subject of espionage crimes. However, enterprises that have committed espionage crimes are bound to be affected or implicated to a certain extent. For example, the "Anti espionage Security Prevention Work Regulations" issued by the Ministry of National Security of China clearly stipulates that for enterprises that have committed the above-mentioned espionage crimes, the national security organs can order them to rectify within a specified period of time in accordance with the law; And a rectification report should be submitted to the national security organs before the expiration of the rectification period. For those who fail to rectify according to the requirements or fail to meet the rectification requirements, the national security organs may interview relevant responsible persons in accordance with the law and report the interview situation to the higher-level competent department of the unit. Therefore, it is necessary for enterprises to carry out anti espionage security measures in accordance with the law in their daily operations.

For general enterprises, carrying out anti espionage security prevention work should comply with the provisions of the Anti espionage Law of the People's Republic of China and the Anti espionage Security Prevention Work Regulations, implement the main responsibility of anti espionage security prevention, and fulfill the following obligations:

（1） Provide education on maintaining national security for the personnel of our company, carry out anti espionage security prevention education and training, improve the safety awareness and response ability of our company's personnel, mobilize and organize our company's personnel to prevent and stop espionage behavior;

（2） Provide convenience or other assistance for anti espionage work (such as delivering the expropriated transportation, communication tools, premises, and buildings of the enterprise according to the requirements of the national security organs, cooperating with the national security organs to access or retrieve the relevant archives, materials, and items of the enterprise, and cooperating with the national security organs to inspect the electronic communication tools, equipment, and other equipment and facilities of the enterprise);

（3） Promptly report to the national security organs (or other national organs or organizations such as public security organs) any suspicious situations involving espionage or other behaviors that endanger national security;

（4） When investigating and collecting relevant evidence related to espionage by national security agencies, truthfully provide it, Not to refuse (in case of violation of this obligation, the supervisory personnel of the enterprise will be subject to corresponding punishment or administrative detention of not more than 15 days by the national security organs; if the circumstances are serious, it is suspected to constitute the crime of refusing to provide evidence for espionage, terrorism, or extremist crimes; if the false proof of protection is provided, it is also suspected to constitute the crime of protection and will be given a heavier punishment);

（5） Keep confidential any state secrets related to anti espionage work that are known to the public (such as not disclosing the investigation clues, actions, and plans for capturing spies by state agencies);

（6） Not illegally holding documents, materials, and other items that belong to a state secret, including those that should not be aware of a certain state secret, those that are not allowed to carry or store such documents, materials, and other items, as well as those that can be aware of a certain state secret, must complete procedures before carrying or retaining such documents, materials, and other items;

（7） Do not illegally hold or use specialized espionage equipment that is specially needed for espionage activities. "Specialized espionage equipment" refers to (1) hidden eavesdropping and photo stealing equipment that is specially needed for espionage activities; (2) Burst transceiver, one-time pad, steganography tools; (3) The electronic surveillance and interception equipment used for obtaining intelligence shall be confirmed by the competent national security department of the State Council;

（8） Strengthen the anti espionage security management of our enterprise and implement relevant security measures;

（9） Properly respond to and deal with anti espionage security emergencies involving the company and its personnel.
If the enterprise is notified in writing by the national security agency that it has been designated as a key unit for anti espionage security prevention, or is a key information infrastructure operator, it should also comply with special requirements stipulated by law.