New Delhi: China has enacted its first Foreign Relations Law which its top diplomat Wang Yi on Thursday asserted will act as a "deterrent" to Western sanctions and safeguard national sovereignty and security.


The new law passed on Wednesday by the Standing Committee of China’s Parliament, the National People's Congress, amid concerns over Chinese overseas law enforcement activities will come into force from July 1.


The new legislation also enshrines the promotion of several of Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature foreign policy initiatives on global security, development and civilisation into law.


An article of the law says “Any organisation or individual who commits acts that are detrimental to China's national interests in violation of this Law and other applicable laws in the course of engaging in international exchanges shall be held accountable by law".


Another article on the new legislation quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency says “The People's Republic of China has the right to take, as called for, measures to counter or take restrictive measures against acts that endanger its sovereignty, national security and development interests in violation of international law or fundamental norms governing international relations”.


The new law was enacted amid reports of China’s offshore law enforcement activities, including over its alleged “secret overseas police stations”.


In April, US authorities arrested two New York-based residents of Chinese origin over suspicion of operating one such station out of a commercial office in Manhattan’s Chinatown, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.


China has been vociferously denying the existence of overseas police stations.


Defending the new law, Wang, the Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee, said it will act as a “deterrent” to sanctions and is needed urgently to safeguard China's sovereignty and security, amid global concerns over Beijing’s ambitions and increasingly assertive foreign policy.


China is confronting a growing number of unpredictable factors and should continuously expand its legal “toolbox” for “foreign struggles”, Wang, who is a key foreign policy advisor of President Xi, wrote in an article published in Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily on Thursday.


Washington has blacklisted more than 1,300 – and counting – Chinese entities on a range of alleged grounds, from ties to the military to aiding Russia, human rights concerns in Xinjiang and contributing to the fentanyl public health crisis in the United States, the Post report said.


The sanctions have become a bone of contention between the two powers and were an important agenda item during the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing earlier this month.


Slamming the sanctions and the US long-arm jurisdiction, Wang said: “[We should] make full use of the Foreign Relations Law as a legal tool – through legislative, law enforcement, judicial and other means – to carry out our fight in response to acts of containment, interference, sanctions and destruction.” “The … law clearly opposes all hegemonism and power politics, and is against any unilateralism, protectionism and bullying acts … towards China,” the Post quoted Wang as saying.


The new law mandates China bolster cross-border law enforcement and international judicial cooperation, particularly in relation to “combating transnational crimes and corruption,” the Post reported.


Wang said the law will offer a “preventive, warning, and deterrent role, providing a legal basis for our country to lawfully exercise” its rights of counter-sanctions and “interference”.


The new law says “the state has the power to permit or deny a foreign national entry, stay or residence in its territory, and regulates, in accordance with the law, activities carried out in its territory by foreign organisations”.


Foreign nationals and foreign organisations in the territory of China shall abide by its laws, and shall not endanger China's national security, undermine social and public interests or disrupt social and public order, it says.


While China protects the lawful rights of foreigners, the new law said it shall take measures as necessary in accordance with the law to protect the safety, security, and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and organisations overseas and safeguard China's overseas interests against any threat or infringement.


Commenting on the new law Huang Huikang, a professor of the Institute of International Law of Wuhan University, told the state-run Global Times that “for the first time, the law states the purpose, conditions and policy orientation of the application of Chinese law in foreign relations, and stipulates principles for the measures to counter and restrictive measures against foreign countries, individuals or organisations," “The extraterritorial application of domestic law is an important part of the rule of law in foreign-related affairs, and exterritorial application of domestic law is the concrete embodiment of protective jurisdiction and universal jurisdiction recognised by international law and is a supplement to personal jurisdiction and territorial jurisdiction”, he said.


"What we object to is the abuse of so-called 'long-arm jurisdiction'," he said. 


(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)