Beijing Has a New Legal Architecture for Sweeping Control Over User Data

“China’s recent sort of [data] laws give the government a much more direct role in overseeing and controlling commercial data,” said Nigel Cory, an associate director at US-based think tank the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which studies restrictive government rules on data flow globally.

However, Beijing still wants private firms to be “in the driver’s seat” in developing China’s digital economy, while taking on a far more direct role in overseeing exactly who has what data, and ensuring that more firms can play a role in the digital space, said Cory.