China's New Cybersecurity Law Effective As Of 1 June 2017

On 1 June 2017, China's cybersecurity law will come into effect. As the first Chinese law focusing exclusively on cybersecurity, the law will introduce unprecedented regulation on data protection and data security practices. This includes mandatory domestic storage of data (data localisation), restrictions on cross-border data transmissions, and data security assessments that may lead to the sharing of confidential information with the Chinese authorities.

On 11 April 2017, a set of draft measures and guidelines were released, providing further insight into the practical implementation of the cybersecurity law. However, the draft measures also reveal the ongoing ambiguity of the law and possible implications. This includes unclear definitions that can be interpreted broadly, and, under the draft measures, the scope of some of the law's most far-reaching obligations appears to be much more expansive than under previous drafts of the law. Although a complete