Xiao Gang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said the use, trading, distribution and sharing of data should be encouraged in China in the context that the market players agree to comply with fundamental requirements.  

The former chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission made the remarks when interviewed about data-driven growth and a research on data he participated in the fourth quarter last year. The research was conducted by the Committee on Economic Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee.

Xiao said the confirmation of data property rights is a worldwide challenge because data is not like land, capital and other traditional production factors, while the realization of data value also depends on labor, technology and fund.

He argued that data ownership encompasses the people-people and people-machine relationships. As a collective concept, it involves interdisciplinary issues with legal, economic, political and ethical implications.

Data ownership should be regarded as a new type of civil rights and protected through legislation, according to him. This also means a clear delineation between personal data and non-personal data, and identification of rights related to data ownership, control, use and beneficiary.

With the balancing of the rights and interests of the State, enterprises and individuals in the heart, Xiao suggested improving the contribution of data to economic growth under the premise of safeguarding data safety and privacy.

In getting right the data use and protection relationship, Xiao put forward four essential points in the interview.

First, the right to government affairs data belongs to the State, and it's necessary to accelerate the open access to such data. Second, development of the industrial internet should be at the core of digital economy, and establishing a management system for industrial Internet data should be a priority. Third, efforts should be made to encourage and support local innovation. Fourth, the responsibilities for data safety and protection should be clarified and coordinated.

Xiao hailed China's advantages of developing a digital economy for the market, users, data and new infrastructure projects. But he saw the lack of the notion to "follow the rule" in the market as a gap to be filled.

"We need to reasonably allocate value-added data rights and interests, regulate competition, establish the basic order in the data market, and form industry norms and standards," he said.

In recognizing the progress of setting up data exchanges or trading platforms in various localities, Xiao said priority should be given to building public infrastructure for data distribution, rather than facilitating data trading.