China’s data localization

Abstract

China has established a comprehensive cross-border data flow regulatory regime, the core of which is “local storage, outbound assessment.” This article offers a theoretical framework for exploring the forces that have driven China’s data localization. Under the guidance of technological nationalism and the ideology of the Holistic National Security Concept, practical security needs, industrial benefits, and technological development have been the main forces that have driven localization, which has been institutionalized by means of the proposed Internet sovereignty and the government-led regime. China’s data localization, which is a typical product of Internet sovereignty, is based on the external environment and its domestic endowments. By understanding China’s data localization, we can comprehend China’s Internet governance.