China’s cross-border data governance is increasingly shaped by a totalistic expansion of national security considerations into personal data protection. This seminar argues that this development must be understood within the historical context of China’s national security framework, which for an extended period since the nation’s founding, lacked a clear legal definition. The first National Security Law, enacted following the social upheaval in the late 1980s, initially presented as a strategic accommodation toward Western conceptions emphasizing constraints on state security powers. However, China’s security framework subsequently evolved into a distinctively Chinese system reinforcing authoritarian governance, culminating in today’s expansive apparatus permeating virtually all governance aspects, despite more sophisticated legalization efforts of security powers.

While recent regulatory adjustments suggest pragmatic flexibility for business needs, fundamental tensions persist between China’s security imperatives and global digital economy integration aspirations. This seminar examines how evolving security frameworks reshape personal data governance, perpetuating China’s longstanding practice of control through calibrated flexibility. Despite sophisticated engineering of selective exceptions within its security-centric regime, China’s all-encompassing security paradigm creates inherent challenges to global data flow integration. This tension is evident in China’s approach to bulk data transfers and expansive classification of security-sensitive information, extending beyond traditional concerns to include personal data with collective security implications. These contradictions may accelerate digital decoupling while paradoxically creating new vulnerabilities, potentially undermining the very security objectives China seeks to achieve.

About the Speaker:

Mr. Peng Zhou, PhD Candidate, CUHK LAW.

Register here by 12 noon (HKT), 15 April 2025 to attend the seminar.