Data-driven productivity and innovation have been a high priority for China’s policymakers in the last decade. Market players and government officials have widely shared the belief that there remains immense potential to improve productivity with data, and that the current obstacles and challenges that prevent efficient data flow, sharing, and use should be addressed with appropriate policy and institutional measures.
In this event Xin Dai will give an overview of the main law and policy strategies China has pursued in recent years in connection with promoting productive use of data. China’s approach includes both a transactional institution-building component and an open government data component. Both lines of efforts have seen initial achievements. However, both also face significant difficulties for further progress. It is widely recognized that legal construction and clarification on some basic points, such as how rights to data may be arranged for among various stakeholders, is critically needed. However, effective legal stipulation in this context is not just some legal formalist exercises, as some tend to assume, but depends on how three sets of classical dynamics in China’s political economy will eventually play out: (1) policymakers’ strategic trade-off between development and security; (2) the conflict between national prerogatives and local interests; and (3) the inter-agency regulatory politics.
Xin Dai is Associate Professor with tenure and Vice Dean at Peking University Law School. Dai received his LL.B degrees (in law and in sociology) from Peking University, a J.D degree from Duke University, and a J.S.D degree from the University of Chicago. He previously practiced corporate and securities law at Shearman & Sterling’s New York and Hong Kong offices and taught at Ocean University of China Law School. Dai’s areas of research and teaching interests include legal theories, law and society, economic analysis of law, and information privacy. His work on China’s social credit system project received an award from the International Association of Privacy Professionals. His current projects focus on the law and governance implications of digital platforms, data, and AI.
For more information, please refer to the attached PDF
DATE: Thursday, May 2, 2024
TIME: 16:45 – 18:15
LOCATION: SIN 1, at the Department for East Asian Studies/Chinese Studies, Altes AKH, Campus, Spitalgasse 2, Yard 2, Entrance 2.3
