China advances its law-based cyberspace governance

A woman promotes products via livestreaming at the Silk Road E-commerce Pavilion during the second Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov. 24, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Lingyi)

BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) -- This year marks the 30th anniversary of China achieving full functional access to the internet. Since 1994, the country has made significant progress in promoting law-based governance in cyberspace.

To date, China has promulgated over 150 pieces of legislation in the field of cyberspace governance, Wang Song, deputy director of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), told a press conference on Tuesday.

To facilitate digital economic development, China has formulated and implemented basic laws for the field, including the E-Commerce Law. Efforts have also been made to expedite legislation on specific areas such as livestreaming, online payments and online recruitment.

As of December 2023, China had over 1.09 billion internet users, statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center showed.

In May 2024, a set of interim regulations on countering unfair competition in cyberspace was promulgated, noted Peng Xinmin, an official of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).

China has devised regulations to protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors in cyberspace, including regulations on the protection of the personal information of children online, according to CAC official Li Changxi.

In the area of law enforcement, the CAC has focused on tackling improper or illegal online behaviors, including the spread of false information and algorithm abuse. Over 40 special operations have been launched over the past years, resulting in the removal of over 20 billion pieces of illegal information, Li said.

Efforts have also been made to push online platforms to fulfill their primary responsibilities and establish sound complaint and reporting mechanisms, thereby protecting the legitimate rights and interests of their users.

China's market regulation authorities have strengthened their supervision of online advertising, investigating and handling a total of 22,500 cases of false or illegal online advertising in 2023.

The SAMR has also established an online mechanism for the resolution of consumer disputes. The national 12315 consumer dispute resolution platform has directly resolved 5.835 million consumer disputes to date, according to Peng.

Zhou Jiahai, director of the Research Office of the Supreme People's Court, said that Chinese courts at various levels have made efforts to strengthen the judicial protection of intellectual property rights to promote the application of scientific and technological innovations.

Through their handling of new case types involving such issues as data-driven price discrimination, these courts have clarified the adjudication rules for new internet-related areas of the law.

Courts at all levels have been exploring and promoting the integration of judicial work and new technologies, including artificial intelligence and blockchain.

Digital courts are also being built to improve the efficiency and quality of judicial work. In 2023, more than 45 million cases were accepted by courts nationwide, with 30 percent of those cases filed online and more than half of all related legal documents served online, Zhou said. ■