Digital News

　　At present, China’s digital trade shows strong development momentum. As a “front-runner” of China’s reform and opening-up and a “forerunner” in innovative development, the pilot free trade zone upgrade strategy emphasizes the important role of digital trade and proposes a series of innovative measures in areas such as market opening-up and cooperation, data element fostering, and international rule alignment and formulation.

　　China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone has taken the lead in piloting initiatives aimed at promoting and regulating cross-border data flows, advancing digital technology applications, and expanding data openness and sharing. These pioneering efforts have recently been replicated and promoted across other pilot free trade zones and nationwide.

　　China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone emphasizes the empowerment of emerging technologies such as big data and blockchain, accelerating the adoption of electronic documentation and enabling the circulation, transaction, and interconnectivity of data as a production factor. Leveraging the Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN), China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone has rapidly expanded the application of electronic bills of lading, with over 550,000 issued to date. The Shanghai Data Exchange has established China’s first data trading alliance chain, with more than 5,000 data products listed for trading.

　　According to Wu Wei, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and Executive Vice Mayor, speaking at a recent State Council policy briefing, China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone has prioritized key sectors with intensive demands such as healthcare, education, and transportation to pilot public data scenario-based authorizations. Based on clear requirements for the safe management of the entire process of public data circulation, development, and use, more than 300 government data sets have been made available to the public. Relevant companies have developed convenient applications such as the “iPuDong” for Pudong elderly care resources, Pudong “Life Guide”, and Pudong “Convenient Service Search” based on these data sets, empowering the public with intelligent and convenient lifestyles through data openness and promoting the development of a smart city network.

　　“By aligning with relevant rules, Shanghai’s digital trade has gained further momentum. In 2024, the city’s digital trade imports and exports totaled USD 109.53 billion, marking a 4.9% year-on-year increase and accounting for 30.1% of the national total”, Wu Wei noted. He added that going forward, efforts will focus on further aligning with high-standard international trade rules, innovating pathways for digital transformation, enhancing digital empowerment, and strengthening digital support services to further promote the growth of digital trade and the digital economy.

　　Not far from Shanghai, China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone is also accelerating the development of its digital economy. Recently, the “Data Elements × Industry Promotion Center” of the Suzhou International Data Port was launched in the China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone Suzhou Area. This center integrates innovation incubation, R&D services, industrial application, and supply-demand matchmaking into a comprehensive service platform, catering to the computing power needs of enterprises based in the international data port. Meanwhile, Sushutong, China’s first one-stop platform for enterprise cross-border data flows, helps companies significantly improve the efficiency of cross-border data declarations. According to the relevant responsible person from the Suzhou Area, the Suzhou International Data Port continues to exhibit a strong siphonic effect, having attracted over 80 data enterprises in sectors such as data services, digital twins, digital trade, digital finance, trusted computing, commercial encryption, and intelligent vehicles. The responsible person said that, as a forerunner of reform in Jiangsu, the Suzhou Area is driving unprecedented institutional innovation to catalyze technological breakthroughs. The zone aims not only to cultivate a national “test field” but also to ensure that the nutrients of data penetrate the roots of every enterprise.

　　From institutional innovations in cross-border data to breakthroughs in large-scale model technologies, and from infrastructure construction to the formation of factor markets, the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone is also charting a blueprint for a dual-engine digital economy driven by technology and regulatory innovation.

　　Currently, Beijing has established an innovative policy system centered on the nation’s “first scenario-based, field-level negative list for outbound data transfers”. This framework is supported by a comprehensive management model that combines “pilot initiatives in pilot free trade zones + city-wide facilitation reforms + dynamic evaluation and optimization mechanisms”.

　　“We have upgraded and developed a flexible and open negative list policy framework. Based on a ‘1+N’ overall structure and dynamic management mechanism, and aligning with the development directions of key industries and actual enterprise needs in Beijing, we have selected five sectors: medical devices, intelligent connected vehicle autonomous driving, trade logistics, banking, and public mutual funds to formulate the second batch of negative lists, thereby expanding the scope of industry coverage”, said Xu Lei, Chief Engineer of the Beijing Municipal Cyberspace Administration. Beijing’s first batch of pilot initiatives guided districts including Chaoyang, Haidian, and Changping to respectively select enterprises with urgent needs for outbound data transfer, high compatibility with the negative list scenarios, and strong compliance capabilities, to pilot the application of a “one enterprise, one policy” approach for outbound data negative lists outside the pilot free trade zone, thereby expanding the scope of policy applicability. At the same time, it was explicitly stated that for areas covered by officially released outbound data negative lists in other national pilot free trade zones, the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone may adopt them as a reference.