China: Adoption of Personal Information Protection Law by National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China

On 20 August 2021, the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC) announced the adoption of the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) through an order by Xi Jinping, the President of the People's Republic of China. It represents China's first comprehensive law in the area of personal information protection. More specifically, it sets out both general rules for the handling of personal information as well as rules specifically for state organs handling data. Furthermore, the law codifies the rights of data subjects when it comes to their data being processed. Finally, the law also contains provisions ruling legal liability of "data handlers" which include personal liability, as well as monetary fines equal to 5% of the previous year's turnover for state departments that violate parts of the PIPL. The PIPL will come into effect on 1 November 2021.