National security is in vogue. As the United States and its allies continue to dominate headlines with their blacklisting of Huawei and increasingly hostile treatment of Chinese investments, China is now pressing on with its own efforts to bolster national security oversight of foreign investment – and its definition of national security goes far beyond defense.

China introduced a national security review (NSR) regime in 2011 but it has received relatively little attention and has seen only a few cases. That is about to change as the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) took over earlier this year as the leading agency for the NSR process and will likely ramp up enforcement.