Urgent call for strengthened cybersecurity law

Ti Gong

China should increase spending and strengthen legislation on personal information protection and data security, political advisers said during the Two Sessions in Beijing.

Data security has become a “bottleneck” for China in the development of its digital economy, especially with the huge volume of data created and used by big data, 5G and artificial intelligence applications, said Tan Jianfeng, director of the Shanghai Information Security Trade Association. Tan is a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference deputy. 

The overall level of data security and privacy protection in China is relatively low, he said. The leakage and misuse of data and personal information had limited the healthy development of China's digital economy and international competition, Tan said.

China should improve its national cybersecurity level in legislation, talent and spending, said Zhou Hongyi, chairman and CEO of 360 Technology, who is also a CPPCC delegate.

Shanghai-listed 360 is the country’s top cybersecurity firm.

Currently, China’s information security spending is just 1 percent of total digital infrastructure investment, much less than the 10 percent in many developed countries. In the long term, the lack of spending will bring risks to national security and digital economy development, Zhou said.

Cybersecurity is a key part of new and digital infrastructure construction, which helps China to develop the digital economy and boost consumption, according to industry insiders.

China should strengthen laws on cybersecurity and data usage, clarifying basic legal issues such as national data sovereignty, corporate data rights and citizen data rights, and cracking down on cyber crimes, Tan said.

China has approved plans to draft and strengthen laws on privacy protection and data security, according to media reports citing government reports, but no more details were provided.