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Cybersecurity
TechPolicy

Hong Kong in talks with Beijing to ease cross-border data flow as new rules threaten city’s gateway status

  • New rules finalised by China earlier this month require some companies to pass a security assessment before moving data out of the mainland
  • Hong Kong officials are advocating for a mechanism that bans data coming from the mainland from leaving the city, to ease Beijing’s concerns

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Hong Kong officials say they are communicating with mainland authorities to ease data flow from the mainland to the special administrative region. Photo: Sam Tsang
Xinmei Shen
The Hong Kong government has initiated talks with the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to make it easier for data to be transferred from the mainland to the city, as Beijing’s new restrictions on cross-border data flow raise questions about Hong Kong’s status as a regional hub.

Hong Kong’s Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau (ITIB) had “started a dialogue” with the CAC, Allen Yeung, founding chairman of the Institute of Big Data Governance (iBDG), an organisation in Hong Kong that aims to promote best data practices among industry members, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post on Thursday.

Hong Kong officials are pushing for a mechanism that bans data coming from the mainland from leaving the city, in exchange for the Chinese government to relax control over such data transfers, Yeung said. Yeung is also a member of the Digital Economy Development Committee under ITIB.

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“We looked at the data export compliance [requirements], and it’s actually quite a lot of work,” he said. “Many big companies are having a hard time processing it, let alone small and medium-sized enterprises.”

“What we’re trying to advocate is that data can come to Hong Kong but not be transferred further [to other places],” said Yeung.

“So that means within one country, data export control can be substantially reduced to a minimum.”

Under the “one country, two systems” principle, Hong Kong maintains autonomy in data regulation and information flow within the city, which is not covered by China’s so-called Great Firewall. Popular internet services from the West, including Google and Facebook, are accessible in Hong Kong, but not the mainland.

China last year passed the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, which along with a growing web of regulations, seek to keep what Beijing deems as important and sensitive data within the mainland.

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