New Rules Advance Data-Based Governance System

Executive Summary:

• New regulations that seek to build an integrated national system for sharing government affairs data are intended to boost the Party’s dual priorities of boosting innovation and safeguarding security.
• The regulations aim to resolve issues and inefficiencies caused by data silos and government organs refusing to share data with other organizations.
• They are the latest in a decade-long push to make data a core “factor of production”—something that accords with President Xi Jinping’s view that governance based on data is the dominant mode of governance in the new era.

In the analysis of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), history unfurls along a linear trajectory. Under the Party’s steerage, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) progresses through stages of development that are ever more advanced and bring ever more wealth and power to the nation. Modes of governance likewise have evolved over time. At first, “governance via experience” (经验治理) was the dominant mode for agricultural societies before they were supplanted by industrial societies, which instituted “governance via rules” (规则治理). Now, in Xi Jinping’s new era, the Party operates a system of “governance via data” (数据治理).

This trajectory is laid out in a document published this week by the PRC Ministry of Justice that provides an exegesis of new rules intended to enhance the government’s digital governance capabilities and improve the effectiveness of public services (Ministry of Justice [MOJ], June 4). The rules, titled “Regulations on Sharing Government Affairs Data” (政务数据共享条列), consist of 44 articles across eight chapters and will come into effect at the beginning of August (State Council, June 3). According to the People’s Daily, they aim to “promote the safe, orderly and efficient sharing and utilization of government data, enhance the government’s digital governance capacity and the effectiveness of government services, and comprehensively build digital government” (推进政务数据安全有序高效共享利用，提升政府数字化治理能力和政务服务效能，全面建设数字政府) (People’s Daily, June 4). This will be achieved by establishing an “integrated national government affairs big data system” (全国一体化政务大数据体系) through the merging of existing data platforms, breaking down “data silos” (数据孤岛), and advancing the development of digital governance mechanisms (Xinhua, June 4). Experimentation of this kind is already underway. Over the past year, 70 “demonstration scenarios” (示范场景) have been set up aimed at helping industrial development, social governance, and improving people’s livelihoods (Xinhua, June 4). As Director of the Data Resources Department at the National Data Administration Zhang Wang (张望) notes, these demonstrations have focused on areas such as transportation and logistics, satellite remote sensing, the low-altitude economy, meteorological services, and medical and health care—all areas the Party has emphasized for high-quality development (Xinhua, June 4).

Regulations Signaled in Previous Directives

The regulations are the first dedicated to regulating and promoting data sharing in government affairs. The Party heralds their arrival as a “milestone event” (一里程碑事件) and a “requirement of the times for the new stage of digitization-driven Chinese-style modernization” (新阶段以数字化驱动中国式现代化的时代要求) (MOJ, June 4). They build on—and supplement—years of extensive work by disparate parts of the government and Party bureaucracy that have sought to put data at the center of the PRC’s governance model.

Several policy directives over the last few years have preceded the latest regulations. Most recently, an opinion (意见) released jointly in September by the general offices of both the CCP Central Committee and the State Council trailed the regulations. It said that by 2025 “the systems and rules for the development and utilization of public data resources will be initially established” (公共数据资源开发利用制度规则初步建立) and that “the role of public data resources will initially become apparent” (公共数据资源要素作用初步显现). The document also noted that “the government data catalogs shall be improved and uniformly managed” (完善政务数据目录，实行统一管理) and that the system of policies concerning the open access of public data would be improved by “defining the rights, responsibilities, and scope for open accessibility of public data” (明确公共数据开放的权责和范围) (Lawinfo China, September 21, 2024).

More authoritative documents, such as the Third Plenum “Decision” (决定) published in July, also indicated that more regulatory clarity and support for data management was on the way. The document referenced “digital intelligence technology” (数智技术) for the first time, and stated that “the keywords of data, arithmetic, algorithms, and ‘new quality productive forces’ are interwoven to form a new picture of future digitization” (数据、算力、算法以及新质生产力等关键词交织成未来数字化发展的新画卷) (Ministry of Justice, June 4). Similarly, the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) and 2035 Long-Range Goals called for a national integrated big data system that would make data more accessible to government and third parties (Xinhua, March 13, 2021).

Going back even further, the Party’s Work Conference for Cybersecurity and Informatization in 2016—which marked the inauguration of the PRC’s “national big data strategy” (国家大数据战略)—called for “deep integration of information resources” (信息资源深度整合) and establishing a national information resource sharing system to improve the use of government data (Xinhua, April 25, 2016). The following year marked the launch of a “Digital China Construction and Development” (数字中国建设发展) strategy that called for “data-driven socialist modernization” (CAC, May 9, 2018; Pacific Forum, February 2023). And in 2019, the Fourth Plenum “Decision” called for new systems to be developed for incorporating data into governance and macroeconomic management (Xinhua, November 5, 2019).

The desire to build such a system stems from an assessment that puts data front and center in Party strategy. The Fourth Plenum “Decision” also listed data as a “factor of production” (生产要素), on par with traditional factors such as labor, capital, land, knowledge, and technology (Xinhua, November 5, 2019). This elevation in importance has been consistent since Xi came to power in 2013. As he stated early in his tenure, “whoever controls big data technologies will control the resources and initiative for development” (谁掌握了大数据技术，谁就掌握了发展的资源和主动权) (CCP News Net, March 30, 2016). This view is echoed today by Zhang Wang who, in his appraisal of the new regulations, notes that government data is “an important basic strategic resource” (国家重要的基础性战略资源” (Xinhua, June 4).

Regulations Seek to Fix Persistent Issues

The regulations seek in part to rectify problems that have arisen in the early years of the PRC’s national data strategy. One of the biggest issues has been the existence of data silos. As the Ministry of Justice notes, for a long time “the division of authority and responsibility in the vertical hierarchy, information barriers in horizontal departmentalization, and the heterogeneity of technical standards have seriously constrained the effectiveness of sharing government affairs data” (纵向层级制的权责分割、横向部门化的信息壁垒、技术标准的多重异构等问题，严重制约了政务数据共享效能). It goes on to say that these contradictions are in fact “systemic problems” (制度问题) that “profoundly reflect an imbalance between the traditional mode of governance and the needs of governance in the digital era” (深刻反映了传统治理模式与数字时代治理需求之间的不平衡) (Ministry of Justice, June 4).

Data silos that have persisted have led to inefficiencies. These include duplicative data collection by different departments and localities, an absence of standardized management of government data catalogs, and a mismatch between supply and demand for data. This in turn has meant that some data is incomplete, inaccurate, or obsolete, and therefore not useful. The penetration of the system is another issue. One report notes that grassroots-level governing organs have not being able to make full use of government data—something that the new regulations also seek to rectify (Xinhua, June 4).

Innovation and Security in Focus

The regulations have a four-part design, according to the interpretation from the Ministry of Justice. These include a “chessboard” (一盘棋) layout, which refers to overall coordination of the system; a “one account” (一本账) approach, which refers to the management of data catalogs; a “one-stop” (一站式) service for data sharing and use; and an “integration” (一体化) of data-sharing platforms. This design is “a structural reform of the hierarchical governance paradigm, providing a rule of law solution to the problem of ‘being unwilling to share, not daring to share, and not being able to share’ government data” (对科层制治理范式的结构性改革，为破解政务数据“不愿共享、不敢共享、不会共享”的问题提供了法治化解决方案) (Ministry of Justice, June 4).

In more concrete terms, the regulations call for establishing a high-quality, nationally-integrated data catalog that covers all regions according to the principle of “compiling all data that should be compiled to the fullest extent possible” (按照应编尽编的原则). They provide detail on how government data should be recorded, how it should be standardized and formalized, and how it should be maintained and updated. Directions for submitting data for review and approval by the relevant organs before it is shared is also included, and on what timelines this should occur.

Underwriting all of the regulations’ stipulations are two considerations that are central preoccupations of the Party in the new era: stimulating innovation and safeguarding security. The purpose of centralizing and reducing inefficiencies is clear throughout. As the Ministry of Justice puts it, the regulations “give full play to the role of data as a basic resource and an engine of innovation” (发挥数据的基础资源作用和创新引擎作用) (Ministry of Justice, June 4). This must not be done at the expense of security, however. In the very first article, the regulations cite the PRC’s Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law, and Personal Information Protection Law, while reference to the “holistic national security concept” (总体国家安全观) appears in Article 4. The sixth chapter also focuses on “safeguarding measures” (保障措施).

These two aspects likely will come together in the Party’s quest for ever greater oversight and control over commercial data. Just as the Cyberspace Administration of China has previously called for integrating e-commerce activity into government data-sharing and standardization systems, the new regulations “encourage and support the application of new technologies such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other new technologies in government data sharing” (国家鼓励和支持大数据、云计算、人工智能、区块链等新技术在政务数据共享中的应用) (CAC, October 26, 2021; State Council, June 3).

Conclusion

The “Regulations on Sharing Government Affairs Data” provide an insight into both the Party’s ambitions and its proximity to their achievement. They can be added to a growing portfolio of laws, regulations, and other measures that seek to shape and harness data as a “productive force”. At the same time, they suggest that the Party views the steps taken over the last decade to build a national, unified system for managing data as insufficient.

The Party has a good track record of policy experimentation and iteration, refining implementation to iron out problems at the early stages before arriving at more robust and sustainable solutions. As such, teething problems to date are not necessarily indicative of lack of success in future. [1] Should the Party succeed in implementing the roadmap laid out in this and other measures, however, they will have created a powerful tool for enhancing control, with troubling implications for private citizens and entities that live and operate in the PRC.

Notes

[1] Samantha Hoffman, a senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, has previously made a similar point regarding the Party’s efforts to leverage the so-called “social credit” system during the COVID-19 pandemic. She described how any gaps that the COVID-19 crisis response revealed “could accelerate improvements and ultimately make the technology more effective” (NED, April 2021).