CAC promises more experimentation on cross-border data flow mechanisms

What happened: At the annual Zhongguancun Forum on tech and innovation on Thursday, cyberspace administration (CAC) Deputy Director Wang Jingtao promised more experimentation on cross-border data transfers.

Quick recap: The CAC walked back overly restrictive data export rules last March, and subsequently began allowing Free Trade Zones (FTZs) in various places to experiment with data export mechanisms.

• Progress has been very slow, and has not met initial expectations that restrictions would be substantially relaxed.

Wang said that more efforts are underway. Namely:

• The central bank (PBoC) and industrial ministry (MIIT) are formulating data export guidelines specifically for the finance and auto industries
• The Ministry of Commerce (MofCom) is working on a data export security assessment “green channel” for foreign-invested enterprises

Wang also said that the CAC would support “all localities” to explore innovative data export management measures.

• That could imply that FTZ-based pilots are poised to expand elsewhere.

Why it matters: Amid economic and political challenges, China is trying hard to woo foreign companies – smoother data exports would certainly please multinationals.