Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China

Summary

Decision of the NPC Standing Committee making 14 changes to the Cybersecurity Law. It adds an article on AI, Article 20 of the amended law: the state supports basic AI theory research and R&D of key technologies such as algorithms, builds training-data resources, computing power and other infrastructure, improves AI ethics norms, strengthens risk monitoring, assessment and safety supervision, and promotes AI applications and healthy development; it also supports using AI and other new technologies to improve cybersecurity protection. Other changes raise the penalties for network operators and critical information infrastructure operators.

Language

English translation by Etcetera Language Group, Inc., for the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), Georgetown University, not by a public body Open it. The Chinese text is authoritative.

Safety topics

Scope

Borderline scope Not AI-specific: an amendment to the Cybersecurity Law, included for the article on AI research, ethics norms, risk monitoring and assessment and safety supervision that it adds (Art. 20 of the amended law).

Status notes

Adopted on 28 Oct 2025 at the 18th session of the 14th NPC Standing Committee and in force from 1 Jan 2026. The Cybersecurity Law is republished with the changes and its articles renumbered. Besides the AI article, the Decision adds an article on Party leadership of cybersecurity work and the overall national security concept (new Art. 3), requires network operators handling personal information to comply with the Civil Code and the Personal Information Protection Law, raises fines up to 10 million yuan for especially serious consequences, adds penalties for selling uncertified critical network equipment and dedicated security products, and allows lighter or no penalties in the cases the Administrative Penalty Law provides.

Sources

Open the official source http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202510/t20251028_449048.html

Secondary source: https://www.cac.gov.cn/2025-10/29/c_1763461514768457.htm

Local copy

Verification

History

1. 2026-10-18related: [{"slug": "cn-generative-ai-interim-measures", "id": "CN-03"}, {"slug": "cn-ai-e → [{"slug": "cn-generative-ai-interim-measures", "id": "CN-03"}, {"slug": "cn-ai-e — two-way link added: CN-12 link(s) to CN-142026-10-18-fix-related-links · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2. 2026-10-18english_version: – → {"kind": "third-party translation", "url": "https://cset.georgetown.edu/wp-conte — required and missing; CSET's English translation of the Cybersecurity Law as amended by this Decision, stored in this run, is the closest English text found; a third-party translation2026-10-18-recheck-east-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
3. 2026-10-18scope_note: – → Not AI-specific: an amendment to the Cybersecurity Law, included for the article — added: the Decision amends a general cybersecurity law and is in for its AI article, the case AGENTS.md section 10 gives a scope_note (a law that is not AI-specific but is the operative instrument for an AI-safety question)2026-10-18-recheck-east-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
4. 2026-10-18notes: Adopted 28 Oct 2025 at the 18th session of the 14th NPC Standing Committee; in f → Adopted on 28 Oct 2025 at the 18th session of the 14th NPC Standing Committee an — version 1's statement that China has not adopted a comprehensive AI law rests on no stored file, and its sentence on what the summary covers was about the record; both removed; the Decision's other changes (items 1, 4, 5, 7 and 13) added2026-10-18-recheck-east-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
5. 2026-10-18summary: Amends the Cybersecurity Law and adds a new Article 20 on AI. The state supports → Decision of the NPC Standing Committee making 14 changes to the Cybersecurity La — rewritten closer to the text of the new Art. 20 (both paragraphs) and the Decision's other changes; version 1's closing sentence ('This places AI governance in national statute law') was an evaluation2026-10-18-recheck-east-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

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Citation

Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress. Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China. 2025-10-28. http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202510/t20251028_449048.html. Status: In force; verified 2026-10-18 (level A). Local copy archive/CN-14/2026-10-11/official.html retrieved 2026-10-11 14:00:22 UTC, SHA-256 4ceadbbc782b676d7ea11caa35db270d6b2351fc3ce8a1f849cc51cf80b56254. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record CN-14.

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