Beijing's iron grip ruins listing on U.S. stock market + The different truth behind political polls • China.Table

A diet for data hunger
The different truth behind political polls
VDMA: Germany lost its championship title
Huawei secures patent deal with VW supplier
Boycott of Winter Games
EU: WTO to rule in patent disputes
EU Parliament: Sanctions without unanimity
Censorship triggers LGBTQ uproar
Portrait: Xia Xu-Fee – Consultant, a dream job
Persons of interest: Andreas Gorbach new head of Daimler Trucks China

Dear reader,

German is no longer good enough for us. If you would like to make China.Table accessible to people who prefer to read our articles in English, we now have something in store for you. From now on, our briefings will also be published in English. For the international version of China.Table, please contact my colleague Robert Hackenfort.

China’s authorities are pushing forward its data protection offensive and are threatening companies with punishments should they not comply with new regulations. Does China finally value personal data? According to Frank Sieren, this is partly true, but unfortunately not the entire truth. Chinese authorities still have free access to all the data they would normally have to obtain through the back door in the US and EU. The strict enforcement of these new rules also serves as a reminder for tech companies who is in charge. But at the same time, corporations are no longer able do whatever they please with their customers’ data. That’s definitely progress.

Journalists who report from China know the problem: its citizens are very, very cautious when talking to strangers. Many people probably inherited this uneasy feeling about public expressions of opinions from their parents when they were younger. Marcel Grzanna investigated what impact this has on opinion polling in China. Surveys that aim to capture political trends in China are therefore difficult to conduct and even more difficult to interpret. This is especially true regarding the high approval ratings for the CP.

Your
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk

Analysis

China’s diet plan for data hunger

The increasing number of IPOs of Chinese companies abroad is apparently a thorn in Beijing’s side. Officials claim that there is great concern that foreign powers – for example in the US – could access their collected data. It is not yet clear whether the tightened rules are about a power struggle between the state and the private sector, or whether the state is actually committed to protecting its citizens’ personal data. It’s quite possible that both is true.

By
Frank Sieren

China’s government intends to impose stricter controls on Chinese companies planning to go public abroad in the future These new rules specifically target “data security, cross-border data flow and management of confidential information,” according to a document released by the State Council in Beijing on Wednesday. The new rules will regulate confidentiality and responsibility for the security of information for companies traded overseas. Supervision of such listed companies will be tightened in order “to deal with risks and emergencies,” the announcement claims.

The official concern is that data of private individuals could leak abroad. Foreign authorities could then force companies to give access to their growing amounts of data.

Furthermore, regulations for the admission of Chinese companies to IPOs abroad are to be revised. China’s securities regulator aims to close loopholes that Chinese tech giants have used in the past to go public in the US or Hong Kong via holding companies in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands, as reported by financial agency Bloomberg. From now Chinese companies will require permission from authorities.

Continue reading now

… and get free access to this Professional Briefing for a month.

Are you already a guest at the China.Table? Log in now