AEI Scholar Wants US Showdown Over China Cybersecurity Law

President Donald Trump and his advisers “should not wait to force a showdown with China” over that country’s recently implemented cybersecurity law, said American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Claude Barfield blogged Friday. The law, which took effect in early June, drew opposition from many U.S.-based interests because it includes data localization rules (see 1612080077, 1703080067 and 1705150067). “The Trump administration should elevate the new Chinese cybersecurity law to top priority” in the two countries’ bilateral negotiations, Barfield said. “The administration should make it clear that if regulations under the new law damage US companies’ ability to compete in the Chinese market, the United States will not just protest -- it will act to institute reciprocal actions that close off the US market to top Chinese technology companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent.”