This is the English edition. The article body below is the publisher's English rendering of the original Chinese article; figures, license numbers and institutional names follow the original.

The State Secrets Protection Administration has set out the compliant path for classified media destruction on its official portal. The key points can be summarized as one bottom line, three procedures, and one prohibition.

The Bottom Line: Information Must Be Beyond Recovery

Destruction of classified media must comply with the regulations on the administration of state secret carrier destruction, using destruction equipment and methods that meet national confidentiality standards to ensure that state secret information cannot be recovered. "Cannot be recovered" means that no readable classified information remains on any residue or fragments after destruction, and that no current technical means can restore it.

Three Procedures

  • Before submission: the organization must carefully complete inventory and registration formalities, obtain review and approval from its competent authority, and store the media in a dedicated facility that meets security and confidentiality requirements.
  • During submission: sort and seal by category, transport securely, and assign dedicated personnel to supervise the destruction on site.
  • Where to submit: classified media must be sent to a dedicated destruction working body or a designated destruction contractor appointed by the confidentiality administrative department; submitting it to any other unit is prohibited.

One Prohibition and One Record-Keeping Rule

No classified media may be destroyed without authorization, and selling classified media as scrap is strictly prohibited. For a small quantity of highly classified media that must be destroyed immediately, an organization may organize its own destruction, but it must strictly complete inventory, registration, and approval formalities, and any equipment used for self-destruction must pass testing by the confidentiality administrative department. Registration and approval records for classified media destruction must be retained long-term for inspection.

Choosing Between Self-Destruction and Designated Bodies

The regulations leave a narrow opening: a small quantity of highly classified media that requires immediate destruction may be destroyed by the organization itself. The test is not whether the quantity is small, but whether all three of the following conditions hold:

  • Genuine need for immediate destruction — there is clear time pressure, such as an institutional merger or dissolution, vacating premises, or a special cleanup campaign.
  • Equipment has passed testing — equipment used for self-destruction must pass testing by the confidentiality administrative department; ordinary shredders and degaussing cabinets do not qualify.
  • Complete, verifiable formalities — inventory, registration, and approval are all in place, the destruction is supervised, and records are retained.

If any one of the three conditions is missing, the media should go through the designated-body route. In practice, the more common scenario is: the conditions appear to hold, but the equipment testing certificate has expired, or the approval document has a signature but no date.

The Four Documents at Handover

What the submission process really needs to retain is four mutually corroborating paper documents:

  • Inventory and registration form — records the media category, quantity, classification level, and serial numbers; the baseline for all subsequent actions.
  • Approval document — the competent authority's written consent to this destruction, with a clear object and quantity.
  • Handover form — signed jointly by the transferring and receiving parties, recording the time, location, handlers, and destruction supervisor.
  • Destruction certificate — the completion certificate issued by the receiving party, stating the destruction method and date; the final document that closes the loop.

These four documents serve more than inspections. If questions ever arise about where the media went, the only thing that can prove "the items really entered the destruction process" is this complete paper trail.

Why a Professional Body Must Be in the Chain

The risk in destruction lies not in the act of destroying itself, but in the intermediate nodes: transport, temporary storage, and handover. The official guidance explicitly requires dedicated supervision and category-based sealing, which in essence compresses the window during which media are outside controlled status. For the receiving party, traceable transport and warehousing records, zoned and controlled work areas, and full-time security oversight throughout are the three necessary conditions for closing this statutory chain.

Source

State Secrets Protection Administration, "Destruction of Classified Media": gjbmj.gov.cn.