A new bill called the "Act Against Foreign Sanctions" is expected to be passed at the closing session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China today (June 10). This is Beijing’s first major legal move in response to Western countries’ sanctions against China over Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

“European businesses in China are worried about the lack of transparency in this process,” said Joerg Wuttke, President of the European Chamber of Commerce in China. Because according to him, the draft of this law has never been published before.

He said the move would not be conducive to attracting foreign investment and would make foreign businesses in China feel unfair. 

Details of the law have yet to be released, but Chinese state media say the law is intended to build a legal basis for China to retaliate against foreign sanctions , according to SCMP .

"Such a law is urgently needed to enrich the legal tools against sanctions, interference and jurisdiction," Xinhua news agency said.

Observers say that this law will increase pressure on foreign businesses, forcing them to stop complying with Western sanctions if they do not want to be retaliated by China.

Jiao Hongchang, dean of the law faculty of Beijing University of Politics and Law, said that China has a precedent for not making the initial draft public, such as the Hong Kong National Security Law.

"People will know in detail if the draft is made public and that will affect the drafting of the law," he said, adding: "With matters related to national security, we can decide decided not to publish".

According to Jiao, China has responded to foreign sanctions through diplomatic channels but has never used the legal system.

"Western countries are used to using legal tools and solving problems through the law. But here, we have not used many legal tools to solve problems," he said.

The law comes after the US, European Union, UK and Canada sanctioned Chinese officials over issues in Xinjiang.

Before that, China used a variety of tools to fight foreign sanctions. In January, China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a regulation requiring Chinese companies to report foreign restrictions on their economic and trade activities.