> According to the article, what requires an import permit is the "foreign 'data encryption technology employing a key length greater than 256 bits'". In realit

> According to the article, what requires an import permit is the "foreign 'data encryption technology employing a key length greater than 256 bits'". In reality, the encryption standards (SM1, SM2, SM3, SM4, etc) in China allows strong encryption. I don't see any clues stating that China forbids encryption technology with a key greater than 256 bits. I guess that's a nit against the post title, but I don't think it really clarifies much. So they have domestic >256bit ciphers, and this restricts foreign equipment that uses >256bit ciphers. China also has an extensive domestic surveillance system, has lots of weird "national security" regulations (e.g. they use an obfuscated coordinate system for public maps, and IIRC it's illegal to use a GPS receiver for anything resembling mapping), and is also pretty protectionist. What's the purpose of these regulations? Is it... 1. To further strengthen domestic surveillance by encouraging the use of (possibly compromised) domestic encryption equipment, or... 2. protect domestic industry by making certain technology imports difficult, or encourage foreign entities to buy Chinese technology for interoperability reasons, or... 3. discourage the domestic use of foreign equipment on national security grounds (e.g. foreign backdoors), or use interoperability or market-access concerns to weaken foreign equipment, or... 4. all of the above?