This book focuses on the PRC’s cross-border data transfer legislation in recent years, as well as the implications for international trade law. The book addresses the convergence of industries and technologies notably caused by digitization; the issue of conflicts between goods and services; and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as well as the difficulty of classifying service sectors under WTO members’ commitments. The book also examines the FTAs that entered into force after 2012 that regulate digital trade beyond the venue of the WTO and analyzes their rules of relevance for cross-border data flows and international trade. It asks whether and how these FTAs have deliberately reacted to the increasing importance of data flows as well as to the trouble of governing them in the context of global governance

Yihan Dai is an associate research fellow of the East China University of Political Science and Law, with particular interests in data protection law and new technologies. She obtains a doctorate from the University of Macao. She holds a master’s degree in International Business Law from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a B.A. in Economic Law from the East China University of Political Science and Law. She had half a year’s stay at the University of Californian, San Diego as a visiting scholar, fully funded by China Scholarship Council.