Contexts
Legal
Translation Equivalents
- National Security
- State Security
Analysis
In Chinese national security law and foreign investment law, national security refers comprehensively to protecting the safety of everything withing or belonging to a nation. China’s concept is extremely broad, encompassing not only the state but all aspects of the environment and populace. This concept is well-known to American national security law. State security is one part of national security in both China and America, but only one of the numerous national security fields.
The term state security should principally be used to describe the security of a state as against its population; typically, this translation method is necessary for texts describing the South African apartheid regime’s State Security Agency, particularly the State Security Council. Other similar historical agencies include the East German Stasi or the Soviet KGB. Historically, China did not accept the Soviet notion of a state security agency and a national security service was only formed in the 1980s, which is officially named the Ministry of State Security. However, China’s official policy documents clearly state the mission of the ministry is to national security, indeed, to emphasize the national security focus, in its early years the agency was prohibited from operating under diplomatic immunity from Chinese embassies.
See our Article on the Chinese law concept for more details.