China’s Privacy Standards

Abstract

In ancient China, the civil disputes were solved by moral principles of Confucianism, which is called “Li” (礼). Therefore, at the time of the emergence of Li, privacy had been protected indirectly to some extent. Li indirectly protected privacy in ancient Chinese society on the one hand, but on the other hand, the existence of Li also restrained the development of legal privacy protection at that time.

In modern China, before 1988, there were not any books or articles on the right to privacy published in the PRC. The first consideration for the protection of privacy in the PRC was a judicial interpretation by the Supreme People’s Court in 1988. Since then, China begins to develop its own protection for privacy. However, the development of privacy protection in the People’s Republic of China is at least 30 years behind that of Western countries. At present, in China, there are no comprehensive legal principles protecting privacy interests. Most importantly, due to the fact that there is no working definition of privacy in China, the general population of China does not know what the concept of privacy is.

This chapter identifies privacy standards in both ancient and modern Chinese society, and considers whether the privacy protection in modern China is sufficient to solve contemporary privacy issues, and whether additional privacy protection is required. Furthermore, the possible development trend of privacy in Chinese society will be explored in this chapter.