China is expanding ‘extraterritorial legal warfare’ against foreigners and foreign businesses, report warns

submitted by Hotznplotzn to world 42 points | 2 comments https://www.csri.global/research/assessing-the-risks-posed-by-chinas-extraterritorial-lawfare-to-businesses cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/53334202 > Archived > > Here is the full report (pdf). > > […] > > Companies are at a growing risk of finding themselves in a ‘double bind’, caught between international standards and Chinese law, the UK-based think tank China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI) writes in a report. > > “Nowhere is this clearer than in the field of data protection. While a number of jurisdictions are developing increasingly aligned data protection safeguards, such as the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU and UK, the Personal Data Protection Act in Singapore, and Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information, PRC [People’s Republic of China] law explicitly overrides such regulations by requiring companies to hand over private data to authorities when requested to do so,” the report says. > > […] > > Since the advent of the Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020, foreign firms – particularly banks – are routinely pressured by PRC authorities to place restrictions on the ability of dissidents living overseas to access bank accounts and other financial services. Companies should be prepared for these requests to become more frequent, as the PRC intensifies ‘transnational repression’ against other groups, and through other means. For example, under extraterritorial clauses, PRC authorities may request access to the personal data of dissidents abroad held by foreign companies, or to remove social media accounts and content – which may put companies in breach of laws, regulations and ethical standards in their host countries. > > […] > > As a result, businesses may be compelled to support acts of transnational repression, such as denying services to or providing personal information to PRC authorities on overseas dissidents and critics of the PRC government, contravening ethical guidelines, local laws and international human rights obligations. > > […]