China’s state secrets are set to be more effectively secured with a far-reaching five-year state-run cybersecurity program, announced against the ever-growing cyber confrontation with the US, Chinese official media reports on Thursday.
The plan is expected to refocus software purchase of the national government agencies and institutions to domestically-developed products, a senior official of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed on Thursday, as cited by the official China Daily.
State-owned enterprises, financial institutions and government departments should improve software security, said Chen Wei, the director of the ministry's software bureau. Chen has provided no further details.
"We are expecting to see breakthroughs in advanced domestic software development within the next five years," Chen said.
READ MORE: Watch out: Chinese Army bans wearable gadgets citing security concerns
China’s concern with cyber security was given a powerful boost following the revelations of the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about universal surveillance capabilities of the US intelligence agencies undertaking questionable practices to intercept all kind of data over the World Wide Web and straddle international communication lines.
Malware masterplan: NSA targeted Google & Samsung app stores to harvest data http://t.co/j29c8PLlVLpic.twitter.com/RyO7SZ6bLw
— RT America (@RT_America) May 21, 2015
American intelligence has long since forced US high-tech and IT corporations to cooperate with the national spy agencies. This cooperation enabled American intelligence to pre-install backdoors and surveillance codes to the US-made hardware sold worldwide.
READ MORE: Malware masterplan: NSA targeted Google & Samsung app stores to harvest data
Taking this into consideration, the Chinese government has recently excluded from the state-approved purchase list of the world's leading technology products, many of them American, and replacing them with domestic alternatives.
A draft national security law posted online in China earlier in May stipulated the utmost necessity for national cyberspace “sovereignty,” mentioning “harmful moral standards” practiced by unnamed powers.