China Digital Economy - Monthly Policy Updates (June 2024)

The CBBC Digital Economy Working Group aims to foster stronger cooperation between the UK and China based on the three core pillars of advocacy, cooperation, and information sharing. It will assist continued policy and commercial exchange in the digital and data field.
The China-Britain Business Council will collaborate with LexisNexis as part of the working group programme to provide you the latest updates on the digital economy including case studies, insights, and analysis.
Tianjin Releases China's First Negative List of FTZ for Management of Outbound Data Transfers
【2024-05-08】
On May 8, 2024, the Administrative Committee for China (Tianjin) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Tianjin Commission of Commerce formulated and released the List of China (Tianjin) Pilot Free Trade Zone for Management of Outbound Data Transfers (Negative List) (2024 Edition), marking the nation's first Negative List for managing outbound data transfers released by a free trade zone. This move aligns with the Provisions on Facilitating and Regulating Cross-border Data Flows and other relevant documents, aiming to facilitate cross-border data flows for enterprises in the pilot free trade zone (FTZ).
The Negative List specifies the situations in which enterprises in the Tianjin FTZ must declare data outbound transfer security assessments, conclude the standard contract for personal information outbound transfers, and obtain personal information protection certifications, when providing data overseas. However, enterprises in the Tianjin FTZ are exempt from the said requirements when the data provided outside China is not listed in the Negative List. The Negative List excludes data involving state secrets, core data, and government affairs data from its management and the outbound transfer of such data shall be governed by relevant laws, regulations, and provisions.
Key considerations for the Negative List are also outlined, requiring the implementation of classified and graded data management, strengthening personal information protection, serving high-quality development of enterprises, and regulating their data outbound transfers. Additionally, the Negative List specifies the data categories that need to be included in the management. Based on the classified and graded management of data of enterprises in the Tianjin FTZ, it divides the outbound data into 13 major categories and 46 subcategories. Each subcategory provides a detailed description of the basic data characteristics and specific examples.
Shanghai Lin-gang Special Area Unveils the First Batch of General Data Lists for Cross-border Data Flows, Covering 11 Application Scenarios in Three Sectors
【2024-05-17】
Recently, the Lin-gang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone held a successful press conference at the Lin-gang Center to introduce scenario-based general data lists for cross-border data flows. During the event, the Administration of Lin-gang Special Area released China's first batch of general data lists for cross-border data flows along with accompanying operation guidelines.
The lists encompass data used in three sectors: intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs), public funds, and biomedicine, covering 11 application scenarios such as cross-border manufacturing of ICVs, pharmaceutical clinical trials and R&D, and sharing of fund market research information. The lists are further classified into 64 data categories and over 600 data fields.
NDA Issues the List of 2024 Key Tasks for Building a Digital China
The National Data Administration (NDA) recently issued the List of 2024 Key Tasks for Building a Digital China (the "Key Tasks"), outlining the deployment of tasks for building a digital China in 2024.
Aligning with the Plan for the Overall Layout of Building a Digital China, the Key Tasks focus on four main areas: building a high-quality digital development foundation, leveraging digital empowerment to drive high-quality economic and social development, strengthening key capabilities supporting the Digital China initiative, and creating a favorable environment for digital development.
The main tasks include: accelerating the expansion and speed-up of digital infrastructure construction, addressing major bottlenecks in the large-scale circulation of data resources, deepening the innovative development of the digital economy, improving the digital government service system, promoting the rich and diverse development of digital culture, building an inclusive and convenient digital society, accelerating the construction of digital ecological civilization, enhancing collaborative innovation and application of digital technologies, steadily enhancing digital security capabilities, continuously improving the governance ecology in the digital field, and continuously expanding international cooperation and exchanges in the digital domain.
Moving forward, the NDA will work with relevant authorities to ensure the implementation of these tasks, deepen the reform of market-oriented allocation of data factors, fully unleash the potential of data factors, and comprehensively enhance the holistic, systematic, and coordinated building of a digital China. The aim is to promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, further empower economic development, enrich people's lives, and improve the modernization of social governance.