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Two Sessions 2023
ChinaPolitics

China reveals plan for data enforcement super agency

  • Proposed National Data Bureau was unveiled at the NPC by the secretary general of the State Council
  • The data guardian would keep an eye on China’s big internet companies, the digital economy and personal data

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Plans for the National Data Bureau and part of an overhaul state institutions under the State Council. Photo: Xinhua
William Zheng
Beijing on Tuesday unveiled a plan to set up a new national-level government office to oversee the security of all state-owned data and ensure that information is shared between government agencies.
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Plans for the National Data Bureau, part of an overhaul state institutions under the State Council, China’s cabinet, were presented by State Council secretary general Xiao Jie to the National People’s Congress for deliberation.

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The ‘two sessions’ – China’s most important political meetings of the year

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Under the plan, the new bureau would be managed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s powerful economic planning body.

The agency would be responsible for “coordinating and promoting the construction of data infrastructure, coordinating the integration, sharing, development and utilisation of data resources” across China’s economy and society, according to Xiao.
The bureau would take over many responsibilities from the powerful Central Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Communist Party oversight body that sits at the top of the State Council’s Cyberspace Administration.
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It would also take over regulation of China’s digital economy and the implementation of a national big data strategy, including infrastructure, which has been under the NDRC.

On Friday, nearly 3,000 Chinese legislators will cast their vote on the changes as part of an ambitious restructuring plan for party and state institutions.

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