China delays next stage of draft counter-terrorism law, US official says

China has effectively put a hold on a draft counterterrorism law that would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys and install security "backdoors," a senior US official said this week.

"They have decided to suspend the third reading of that particular law, which has sort of put that on hiatus for the moment," White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel said on Thursday during a discussion at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The Obama administration has raised concerns about the draft law.

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