This paper reviews the major legal instruments and self-regulations that bear heavily on the cross-border sharing of genomic data in China. It first maps out three overlapping frameworks on genomic data and analyzes their underpinning policy goals. Subsequent sections examine the regulatory approaches with respect to five aspects of responsible use and sharing of genomic data, namely, consent, privacy, security, compatible processing, and oversight. It argues that substantial centralised control exerted by the state is, and would probably remain, the dominant feature of genomic data governance in China, though concerns of individual protection are gaining momentum. Rather than revolving around a simplistic antinomy between privacy preservation and open science, the regulatory landscape is mainly shaped by the tension between government desires for national security, state competitiveness, and public health benefits.
We live in an age of datafication wherein nearly all aspects of our lives can be transformed into data and evaluated. The authors seek to make sense of the heightened datafication-enabled social control under China’s Social Credit System (SCS) by developing the concept of the data state. A “data state” is defined as a governance model enabling the state to comprehensively monitor, evaluate, and control its subjects through datafication, leaving them little room to defend their autonomy. We identify the multiple functions of the SCS in its development up to 2020 and analyze its inherent defects, including the decontextualized evaluation of individuals and the semi-automated imposition of disproportionate punishment. We argue that, if the SCS were to fully integrate its functions and connect to other data-driven governance initiatives, it would eventually allow the data self, carefully groomed by the state, to dominate the bio-self and turn China into a data state. Whereas China’s SCS may be unique and not easily replicated elsewhere, understanding its intricacies helps to enable the citizens of democratic societies to guard against the relentless growth of datafication that may result in an invincible and irreversible ecosystem for the emergence of a data state.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.