China just set up a new bureau to mine data for economic growth |
Posted: March 17, 2023 |
China just set up a new bureau to mine data for economic growth China’s annual, week-long parliamentary meeting just ended on Monday. Apart from confirming President Xi Jinping for a historic third term and appointing a new batch of other top leaders, the government also approved a restructuring plan for national ministries, as it typically does every five years. To get more china tech news, you can visit shine news official website. Among all the changes, there’s one that the tech world is avidly watching: the creation of a new regulatory body named the National Data Administration. According to official documents, the NDA will be in charge of “advancing the development of data-related fundamental institutions, coordinating the integration, sharing, development and application of data resources, and pushing forward the planning and building of a Digital China, the digital economy and a digital society, among others.” “It makes sense to set something [like NDA] up, given how important data is,” says Jamie Horsley, a senior fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School, who studies regulatory reforms in China. “But the problem anytime you try to streamline government is that you realize every issue impacts other issues. It’s very hard to just carve out something that’s only going to be regulated by this one entity.” In fact, the new national administration greatly resembles the Big Data Bureaus that Chinese provinces have been setting up since 2014. These local bureaus have built data centers across China and set up data exchanges that can trade data sets like stocks. The content of the data is as varied as cell phone locations and results from remote sensing of the ocean floor. The bureaus have even embraced and invested in the questionable concept of the metaverse. Those bureaus tend to view data as a promising economic resource rather than a Pandora’s box full of privacy concerns. Now, these local experiments are being integrated and elevated to a national-level agency. And that explains why the new NDA is set up under China’s National Development and Reform Commission, an office mostly responsible for drawing broad economic blueprints for the country. We may not get clarity on NDA’s full scope of authority until the summer, when its organizational structure, personnel, and regulatory responsibilities are expected to be put down in writing. But analysts think that it’s not likely to replace the Cyberspace Administration of China, which has risen up in recent years to become the “super regulator” of the tech industry. “Although CAC will lose a few things, its core power has not been significantly undermined,” wrote Tom Nunlist, a senior analyst on tech and data policy at the analytical firm Trivium China. Likely, it will keep exerting control in many of the areas it has been regulating for years: keeping big tech companies in check, ramping up internet censorship, and scrutinizing multinational companies for security issues related to data transfer. Making the NDA a government agency is a big move, given how party-centric China’s leadership is today, Horsley says: “[China is] a party-state, but the state piece of it is still very important … Of course, it’s supposed to be loyal to the party, but it’s also supposed to deliver [on economic development goals].” 2. China has brokered an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to reestablish diplomatic relations, filling a diplomatic vacuum left by the United States. (Vox) 3. Hundreds of Baidu employees are working around the clock and borrowing computer chips from other departments to get ready for the launch of Ernie Bot, Baidu’s answer to ChatGPT, this coming Thursday. (Wall Street Journal $) 4. Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, has sought closed-door meetings with at least half a dozen lawmakers in Washington, DC. He is scheduled to appear before a congressional hearing regarding privacy and national security concerns about TikTok later this month. (Forbes $) 5. China may control 32% of the world’s lithium mining capacity by 2025, the investment bank UBS AG estimates. (Bloomberg $) 6. China reappointed Yi Gang as the head of the central bank, signaling continuity in its monetary policies. (AP)
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