The Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress deliberated over a draft amendment to the State Secrets Law for the second time during the standing committee's bimonthly session that started on February 24.

Compared with the existing law on guarding state secrets, which took effect in May 1989, the new draft defines secrecy levels and authority limits and clarifies time limits for different levels of confidentiality and conditions for declassification.

The time limit for maintaining top-level secrets should be no more than 30 years, no more than 20 years for low-level state secrets, and less than 10 years for ordinary state secrets, the draft states.