New Report: Mapping U.S.–China Data De-Risking

Beijing and Washington accumulate barriers and safeguards

In August 2020, DigiChina published Mapping US–China Technology Decoupling—a snapshot of measures that had already been taken in Washington and Beijing with the effect of unwinding interdependence. That mapping exercise identified actions taken by both governments to separate technology systems across categories including export controls, data, supply chains, encryption, financial untangling, and travel.

Today, we are releasing a follow-up that looks at subsequent developments specifically in the area of data governance and cross-border data transfers. Samm Sacks, Yan Luo, and Graham Webster map the most impactful measures by both governments to erect barriers or enforce safeguards when it comes to transferring data between the two countries.

This report comes a day after the Biden administration released a major executive order and advance notice of proposed rulemaking that stands to curtail data broker sales to China and other countries of concern, among other measures. This action breaks from longstanding U.S. patterns of regulation, in which little or no data restrictions were focused on specific countries. This report is thus a snapshot in time, but it is the first effort we are aware of to tally up obstacles to U.S.-China cross-border data flows in one place.

You can read the full report in PDF here.

About DigiChina

Housed within the Program on Geopolitics, Technology and Governance at Stanford University, DigiChina is a cross-organization, collaborative project to provide translations, factual context, and analysis on Chinese technology policy. More at digichina.stanford.edu.