Ministry of Commerce to launch pilot programme on cross-border data transfer security management

On 14 August 2020 the Ministry of Commerce issued the Master Plan for Comprehensively Deepening the Pilot Programme on the Innovative Development of Trade in Services. The plan covers 28 provinces and municipalities directly under the central government, including Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. The pilot programme will run for three years.

The plan proposes to:

• establish dedicated internet data channels in pilot areas, where feasible. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will formulate the relevant policies in this respect;
• explore the classification and supervision model of cross-border data flow and carry out a pilot programme on cross-border data transfer security management. The Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission will formulate the relevant policies. The pilot programme will be implemented in pilot areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan and the Xiong'an New Area;
• develop cross-border services such as Big Data collection, storage, processing, analysis, mining and trading based on industrial internet in pilot areas;
• explore the rules and standards regarding data service collection, masking, application, trading and supervision (among other things);
• promote the commercialisation and securitisation of data assets and explore the development of new models for Big Data trading;
• undertake a security assessment of cross-border data flow in pilot areas; and
• establish data security management mechanisms on data protection capability certification, data circulation back-up review, cross-border data flow and transaction risk assessment (among other things), encourage international cooperation with respect to digital rules in pilot areas and strengthen data protection.

For further information on this topic please contact Samuel Yang or Hongyu Jiang at AnJie Law Firm by telephone (+86 10 8567 5988) or email (yanghongquan@anjielaw.com or jianghongyu@anjielaw.com). The AnJie Law Firm website can be accessed at www.anjielaw.com.