China passes law to counter foreign sanctions

China's top legislature passed the country's first foreign relations law aimed at countering sanctions and restrictions.

The law was passed Wednesday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and will be implemented from July 1.

China's foreign policy adviser Wang Yi called the new law a "deterrent" to sanctions and said it is needed urgently to safeguard national sovereignty and security.

China 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 South China Morning Post reported, citing an article published Thursday in the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily written by Wang.

"The law clearly opposes all hegemonism and power politics and is against any unilateralism, protectionism and bullying acts towards China," it said.

The law is divided into six chapters mainly focused on the country's major policies, the guiding ideology, purposes, principles, tasks and objectives of the country's foreign affairs.

Chinese experts also said the new law was necessary to counter Western countries' "unfair" sanctions against Beijing.

"The unilateral sanctions and 'long-arm jurisdiction' imposed by some Western countries on China and other countries in recent years seriously jeopardized the sovereignty and interests of other countries and threatened the international order and global development," the state-run Global Times quoted Huo Zhengxin, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, as saying.

In April, Chinese lawmakers also passed a revised anti-espionage law aimed at banning the transfer of any information related to the country's national security and interests