Editor's note

• Author: Zheng Weiwei
• Position: Ph.D. in International Law, School of Law, Jilin University, Changchun, China
• Pages: 251-252

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 15 SEPTEMBER 2020 NO. 3

DOI 10.3868/s050-009-020-0015-6

FOCUS

RESEARCH ON THE MAJOR ISSUES OF DATA FLOW AND INFORMATION PRIVACY

PROTECTION: A GLOBAL WATC H FR OM A CHINESE PERSPECTIVE

EDITOR’S NOTE

ZHENG Weiwei*

With the development of the internet and economic globalization, the global flows of

data have become a powerful driving force for global economic and investment growth.

In the context of big data and cloud computing, personal information protection has

become an important issue in various fields. International trade agreements are facing

challenges in cross-border data flows, and the global financial regulatory system also has

problems regarding personal data protection. The European Union and the United States

have created two different paths for the legal regulation of the protection of personal

information and the cross-border flows of data according to their respective historical

traditions and practical demands. China has also made important progress in the

protection of personal information. The Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China

(2020) provides multiple forms of private information protection. The four articles focus

on the above issues and observe the global data flows and information privacy protection

from China’s perspective.

The first article is from Professor QUAN Xiaolian, “The Governance of Cross-Border

Data Flows in Trade Agreements: Is the CPTPP Framework an Ideal Way Out?” This

article discusses the shortcomings of international trade agreements in the context of

cross-border data flows. The article argues that the highly anticipated CPTPP and its

updated vision USMCA, in fact, fail to respond well to the problems raised by the

protection of cross-border data flows. Instead, they may eventually disintegrate the

international legal system and hinder international cooperation by attaching more

importance to free trade than to individual online privacy and national cybersecurity. For

the international society, especially for China, this article suggests that cross-border data

flows should be regulated under the WTO-centered multilateral trade law system.

* ZHENG Weiwei (郑维炜), Ph.D. in International Law, School of Law, Jilin University, Changchun, China;

Associate Professor, School of Law, Renmin University of China; Research Fellow, Law and Technology

Institute, Renmin University of China; Director, Center for Cross-Border Data Transfer and Online Dispute

Resolution, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Contact: smileweiwei1014@sina.com