Cybersecurity Law and Regulation in China: Securing the Smart State

Abstract Cybersecurity has become a key regulatory area in China’s rapidly digitizing society, economy, and state. The leadership deems it critical in providing adequate security guarantees for the realization of the ambitious “informatization” policy, symbolized by the passing of the Cybersecurity Law in 2016. Cybersecurity has also become integrated with overall national security, at a time when Chinese policy has become increasingly securitized. What, then, does this mean in practice? How do authorities conceive of cybersecurity and attempt to retrofit regulatory frameworks into an already well-established digital environment. This paper reviews the various components of the cybersecurity regime established by the Cybersecurity Law. It discusses how external circumstances have facilitated or obstructed the advance of regulation and implementation and demonstrates how cybersecurity is embedded in the broader processes of reform led by the Chinese Communist Party.