Research on Data Sovereignty Rules in Cross-border Data Flow and Chinese Solution

Abstract

Data sovereignty is the manifestation of national sovereignty in the digital field, which is also a matter of national security. While the U.S. ostensibly emphasizes the cross-border free flow of data, it actually implements the powerful policy of long-arm jurisdiction damaging the data sovereignty of other countries. On the other hand, the EU promotes European rules to the world in the name of advocating data protection, furthering data sovereignty through technological sovereignty. Russia asserts data sovereignty by adopting data localization measures. In order to adequately maintain data sovereignty in the cross-border flow of data as well, China should draw up the extraterritorial practice of relevant rules. In view of the problems to Chinese data sovereignty rules, we propose the concept of constructing such to strike a balance between data protection and data open, establish the jurisdictional rules of data sovereignty, determine the reasonable scope of applying data localization, and actively participate in the international legislation of data sovereignty. The proposal is also to provide a Chinese solution that is prudent and encouraging cooperation for global data sovereignty rules.