ABSTRACT
In the face of rapidly growing cybercrime risks, the Chinese government enacted some omissions liability offences for internet service providers (ISP). It introduced some new pre-inchoate offences for individual offenders. This chapter examines the cyberspace principles enshrined in the Cyber Security Law in China to try to ascertain whether they are apt for solving the particular cybercrime problems that they are designed to stem. The new forms of cybercrimes in China are omissions offences for ISP based on the fact that ISPs might not invest properly in security and retain data that may be needed for solving crimes. Criminal law mainly aims at to attribute liability for past wrongdoing so that a person can be appropriately punished. There has been a move toward preventive criminalisation to deter harm before it is attempted or done. The general principle of bearing responsibility solely for one’s own wrongdoing requires that citizens ought only to be held criminally responsible for their own actions.
