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Chinese Law
                            
This article is ostensibly about Apple’s decision to hand over iCloud data to the Chinese government, but it is also a good primer on Chinese law in general.
Some highlights:
The basic principle of Chinese privacy law is that the underlying owner of all information about people (and the underlying owner of everything else, really) is the state.
As the owner of this information, the state has a nearly-unlimited right of access to it.
There are several legal signing authorities for a search warrant, including any two police officers. 
You can’t go to a judge and demand that a subpoena for information be quashed when you receive it. Instead, you need to comply on the spot, and you can file any complaints you like later.
“Filing a complaint” is ultimately more of a social process than a legal one, trying to convince a more senior person to take your side.
Similar things apply to bulk requests for data, or things like continuous monitoring.
You won’t get two cops showing up and asking you for a permanent continuous monitoring system.
Instead, you’ll get a senior government minister having a friend of his (who is probably on the board of your Chinese partner, which owns 51% of the company, as required by law) suggest that such a project would increase social harmony.
They are very polite about these things, but the silk glove is around a mailed fist.
The Chinese government’s view of who is under its jurisdiction may not quite align with other people’s views.
They have a tendency to view Chinese nationals living anywhere, and those people’s children who are simply of Chinese heritage, as also being under their natural jurisdiction. 

©Andrew Swift · top · more · contact