China makes new laws to regulate hi-tech sector a major priority for next five years
- Plans to overhaul legal system will include reforms to ‘overcome shortcomings’ in areas such as AI, cloud computing and online finance
- Regulations have been relatively lax until now to aid the development of the country’s digital economy
China’s leadership has vowed to ramp up legislation to regulate tech firms and ensure the supporting legal system keeps up with the pace of the country’s digital economy as a policy priority for the next five years.
The focus on regulating areas such as internet finance, artificial intelligence and big data was highlighted in the Communist Party’s detailed blueprint to overhaul the country’s legal system as part of a broader five-year plan.
“[We must] follow and study closely legal systems related to the digital economy, internet finance, artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing so that we can fill our shortcomings in these areas,” the official Xinhua news agency said in a report citing the plan.
“[We must] also strengthen coordination and system building of our legal systems among different regions, and by amending the law, [we need to] address the issues of low penalties and the cost of violation being too low.”
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China’s digital economy already accounts for more than a third of total GDP, but its supporting legal system still lags behind.