leaders (including the two Vice Chairmen of the CMC). The CNSC General Office is responsible for the commission's daily work and is run by senior CCP officials serving in dual-hatted roles in other positions. As of March 2023, the Director of the CNSC General Office likely continued to be Ding Xuexiang, a longtime political aide to Xi. Ding also serves as the Director of the General Office of the Central Committee and is a member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Last October, Chen Wenqing was elevated to Secretary of the Central Politics and Law Commission at the 20th Party Congress and is unlikely to stay on at the CNSC where he has served as Deputy Director of the CNSC General Office since 2018.
National Security Strategy. By 2015, the CCP had adopted the PRC's first national security strategy outline following the CNSC’s establishment. Official media noted the strategy intends to unify efforts by various departments under the central leadership’s guidance. Since 2015, the PRC's leaders and media have indicated national security sub-strategies that cover a variety of issues including political security, homeland security, military security, economic security, cultural security, societal security, technology security, network security, nuclear safety, ecological security, resource security, and biosecurity. In November 2021, the Politburo deliberated and, soon thereafter, passed the PRC's National Security Strategy (2021-2025) (国家安全战略).
National Security Law. With the establishment of the CNSC and the Party's adoption of the national security strategy, in 2015 the National People's Congress (NPC) passed the National Security Law (国家安全法). This law encapsulated the Party's overall national security concept and swept a broad range of issues beneath a new legal framework of "national security," while strengthening the formal role of central authorities. In recent years, the NPC has also passed a series of laws intended to address more specific national security concerns including counterespionage (2014, updated in 2022), counterterrorism (2015), cybersecurity (2016), foreign non-governmental organizations in China (2016), intelligence (2017), cryptography (2019), and the coast guard (2021). While these laws address more specific national security concerns, they remain sweeping in scope and authorities.
In an effort to raise public awareness of the Party's national security concepts and emphasize national security as a civic responsibility, the 2015 National Security Law designated April 15th of each year as National Security Education Day. Indicating the reach and depth the Party desires its national security concepts to penetrate into the party-state, the 2015 National Security Law also made provincial, autonomous regions and municipalities responsible for national security work within their administrative areas. This has led to the creation of national security committees in the Party's provincial-level organizations, each headed by the province's party chief.
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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China
