Cybersecurity

‘Very troubling’: US asks China to hold off on cybersecurity law

Washington has asked Beijing to refrain from enforcing a new cybersecurity law that would require foreign and domestic companies to store user data in China and submit to security checks, saying such measures would damage global trade.

The Cybersecurity Law was passed by China in November 2016, and went into effect in June 2017. The law states that any “network operators” in China, including any local or international firms that gather data, must store all user data within mainland China.

In the two-page document submitted for debate at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Council for Trade in Services on Tuesday, the US raised concerns over provisions requiring companies to submit to a "security assessment” and prove that the “purpose of the transfer meets standards of legitimacy, necessity, and justification” before they transfer data out of China.