From Information Rights to Data Wrongs: China’s Data Governance Paradigms and Their Implications for Administrative Law
Two models for regulating the state’s management of information are in tension amid China’s ongoing digitization of its governance: an “information rights” paradigm that emerged in the early 2000s to empower citizens by overcoming information asymmetry through administrative law, and a “data wrongs” paradigm that took shape in the late 2010s to prioritize data as a tool for enhancing state capacity by identifying and rectifying perceived wrongs. This tension and dynamic, with its spill-over effects for the role of Chinese administrative law, is subtly reflected in recent norm-making—such as the 2025 Government Data Sharing Regulations and amended Judicial Interpretations of the Open Government Information Regulations—and illustrated through initiatives like the Social Credit and health code systems. In these arenas, the autonomy-supportive functions of administrative law are not nullified but are instead “moderated” to accommodate imperatives of granular social control. Assessing what this tension means for Chinese administrative law requires a new analytical framework that transcends a narrow, technical “data governance” discourse to situate the role of datafication within China’s changing socio-political landscape.
About the Speaker
Dr. Yongxi (Clement) Chen is a Lecturer at the ANU College of Law. His research focus is in the areas of law & technology and public law. He has published on freedom of information, privacy, judicial review, and regulation of big data, with a focus on China and from a comparative perspective. His recent projects explore the interface between public law and algorithms by examining the norms and normativity emerging in China’s Social Credit System. He also collaborates with computer scientists in using machine learning to inform legal decision-making.
Dr Chen’s work has appeared in international journals such as Law & Social Inquiry, European Data Protection Law Review, Human Genetics, Tsinghua China Law Review, and The Journal of Comparative Law. He has been awarded a competitive General Research Fund (GRF) grant by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council for research on algorithm-assisted sanctions. He has been invited to speak at numerous international conferences in his fields of research, including the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, the European China Law Studies Association Annual Conference, and the International Junior Faculty Forum sponsored by Stanford Law School. He has also advised on the drafting of local legislation in China related to freedom of information and digitisation.
Dr Chen holds an LLB and an MPhil in Law from Sun Yat-sen University, a Postgraduate Diploma from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a PhD from The University of Hong Kong. He won the Intersentia Prize for the Best PhD Thesis in Law and the French Government Scholarship, among other awards.
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