New America
Cybersecurity Initiative

DigiChina Digest – March 2019

Blog Post
By 

Graham Webster

 and 

Katharin Tai

March 22, 2019

The DigiChina Digest includes exclusive new content and news tracking from Chinese-language sources on digital policy in China, as well as the latest from our collaborative translation and analysis work. The Digest is produced in partnership with our colleagues at the Leiden Asia Centre. This edition was compiled by Graham Webster and Katharin Tai.

Please encourage anyone interested to subscribe at DigiChina's main page.

RECENTLY FROM DIGICHINA


Samm Sacks Testifies Before Senate on China and Challenges to U.S. Commerce

DigiChina and Cybersecurity Policy Fellow Samm Sacks testified before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Security, in her written testimony, she outlined five recommendations:

  • Adopt a "small yard, high fence" approach, "being selective about what technologies are vital to U.S. national security, but being
    aggressive in protecting them."
  • Prioritize China's emerging standards regime, regulations affecting data flows, and IP theft in trade and economic negotiations with the Chinese government.
  • "Work with China on setting norms for emerging technologies" to harness the potential of cooperation while maintaining insight into China's own path.
  • "Coordinate with allies and partners to create international pressure on Beijing," and avoid the downsides of unilateral pressure, including retaliation against U.S. companies and the potential to strengthen Chinese government resolve on its most problematic practices.
  • "Play offense by investing in … R&D, infrastructure, STEM education, and a capital market that rewards investment."

[Read and watch video here.]

DIGICHINA DIGEST EXCLUSIVE

Digital Policy in China's 2019 Government Work Report

The Chinese government's annual "two meetings," of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress, took place this month with relatively little fanfare on Internet and digital policy issues. But Premier Li Keqiang's annual report on the work of the government (available in an official bilingual edition) signaled continued emphasis on several relevant efforts:

  • "We will increase support for basic research and application-oriented basic research, step up original innovation, and work harder to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields." See DigiChina's coverage of an April 2018 speech by Xi Jinping emphasizing "indigenous innovation" in "core technologies."
  • Li continued to emphasize the "Internet Plus" concept, through which authorities have promoted applying Internet technologies to a wide array of government and industrial functions. Specific applications mentioned in this year's report include: government services, regulation reform, education, healthcare, and government inspection.
  • This year's report also pushed "Intelligent Plus" (or "Smart Plus") approaches "to facilitate transformation and upgrading in manufacturing," implicitly through advanced automation or AI. A state media article on "Intelligent Plus" framed the concept as a way to increase Chinese competitiveness in emerging industries.
  • Emerging industries got their own direct mention, calling out "big data and artificial intelligence" and "emerging industries like next-generation information technology, high-end equipment, biomedicine, new-energy automobiles, and new materials," as well as the "digital economy" in general.

BRIEFLY NOTED

China MIIT and Standards Administration Framework on Industrial Internet Standards

MIIT and Standards Administration Target 100 'Industrial Internet' Standards by 2025

The "Guidelines for Building a Comprehensive Industrial Internet Standardization System," issued in January by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Standards Administration of China and published this month, sets a goal of establishing the basics of an "industrial Internet" standardization system by 2020, and surpassing 100 standards by 2025.

In the diagram above, titled "Industrial Internet Standards System Framework," the ambition of this effort comes into focus. Areas for standardization range from "applications" such as smart manufacturing, automobiles, and aviation, to technical concerns such as network gear, factory networks, edge computing, industrial big data, cybersecurity, data security, and industrial apps.

The Guideline includes a list of 320 documents awaiting drafting, in the drafting process, or already published, encompassing efforts of several Chinese standards groups, as well as those with international designations. [See the announcement and full document.]

A Year After Cyberspace Authorities Gained Higher Status, A Scholar's List of 10 Accomplishments

One year ago this month, China's cyberspace authorities gained higher bureaucratic status when the Central Leading Group for Cybersecurity and Informatization, created in 2014, was upgraded to a Central Commission (see DigiChina coverage). In the Party magazine Qiushi, Wang Chunhui of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications offered a review of 10 key developments cyberspace policy over the past year. Here is Wang's list, with links to DigiChina and other coverage for some of them:

  1. The National Cyber ​​Security and Informatization Work Conference was held in Beijing in April 2018. DigiChina translated coverage of Xi Jinping's speech.
  2. The E-Commerce Law went into effect on January 1, 2019. NPC Observer coverage.
  3. “Provisions on Public Security Organs' Internet Security Oversight and Inspections,” effective November 1, 2018. Translation at China Law Translate.
  4. The Supreme People’s Court issued “Guidelines Regarding Certain Questions in Internet Trial Courts”
  5. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued "Guidelines for Procuratorial Organs Handling Telecommunications Network Fraud Cases."
  6. Persistence in creating a “clean and tidy Internet” by several government departments, e.g. by implementing “Provisions on the Administration of Microblog Information Services.”
  7. Drafting of the Personal Information Protection Law was moved forward, responding to “pressing demands from the people” for better data protection.
  8. Legislative attention to cybersecurity and protection for minors online.
  9. Special governance on apps collecting personal information, issued by jointly by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Security, the Public Security Bureau and others on 25 January 2019 in response to the illegal use of personal information.
  10. Governing illegal behavior in the online market, such as combatting telecommunications fraud, regulating the taxi industry, and implementing blockchain governance.

DigiChina's own review of China’s 2018 Internet governance by Mingli Shi can be found here.

About DigiChina

The DigiChina project is a collaborative effort to understand China’s digital policy developments, primarily through translating and analyzing Chinese-language sources. DigiChina is supported through a partnership with the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Initiative of the MIT Media Lab and Harvard's Berkman Klein Center.

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