Research On The Mechanism Of State Secret Definition:in The Comparative Perspective Of China And The United States

The mechanism of state secret definition determines the scope of state secrets, which is a crucial factor in equilibrating the security and publicity, as well as a guarantee to the citizen’s right to know, the utilization of government information and the level of governance. Mechanisn-of state secret definition in China has considerable drawbacks since it is dominated by security and is supplemented with exceptional publicity in the long term. In the presence of ambiguous scope of state secrets, incomplete procedure of classification and declassification, and disputed remedy mechanism, the mechanism of state secret definition does not work well, such as proliferation of state secrets, unconstraint of confidential powers, serious violations of the right to know, and severe constraint of information disclosure.By employing the comparative research, this paper compares mechanism of state secret definition in China to that in the United States--a more advanced and scientific system. This paper takes system analysis and data analysis to seek the differences existing between the two, to look for potential reasons, and to find the way to improve mechanism of state secret definition in China.By contrast, there are significant differences between the two countries’ mechanisms. Firstly, scope of state secrets in China is wide and vague while that of the United States is narrow and clear. Secondly, in China, the quantity of classification is large and the responsibility of authorities is unclear, while in the United States, the quantity of classification is restricted and authorities are strictly controlled. Thirdly, the procedure of classification in China is murky, which leads to a abuse of the power of classification, but the United States has strict classification procedure, and takes a variety of measures to limit the power of classification. Fourthly, China barely has declassification system, however, the United States put declassification to the equally important position with classification, having designed five different declassification review mechanism and stressing on the solution of the declassification dispute. Besides, by contrast to perfect mechanism in the United States, China has no dispute remedy mechanism. On the whole, the huge gap on the secrets mechanism between the two countries can be owed to the difference of their secrecy laws. China and the United States are different in lots of aspects, such as in their legislative concept, value orientation, the specific legal system constitution, and the law’s functions. Therefore, these differences contribute to the difference on the mechanism of definition of state secrets between China and the United States.To solve our problems in the mechanism of state secret definition, the government should firstly optimize the security law and erect the legislation concept which is "dominated by publicity and supplemented with exceptional security". Based on such concept, the government is supposed to construct a law system reconciling security with publicity. Secondly, the scope of state secrets should be narrowed, with a more explicit subject and responsibility of the classification authorities. Meanwhile, the procedure of classification and the remedy mechanism should be furnished out. Moreover, the government should clarify the subject and responsibility of the declassification by setting the conditions and procedures of declassification. Last but not least, the mandatory declassification application and remedy mechanism should be fortified, guaranteeing the accessibility of the timely information after its declassification.