Government Data Sharing Regulations of the PRC — Full English Translation (2025)

Adopted at the 59th Executive Meeting of the State Council on May 9, 2025

Promulgated by Decree No. 809 of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China on May 28, 2025

Effective: August 1, 2025

Table of Contents

Chapter I — General Provisions

Article 1 — These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Data Security Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China and other laws, for the purpose of promoting the secure, orderly and efficient sharing and use of government data, enhancing the government’s digital governance capability and the efficiency of government services, and comprehensively building a digital government.

Article 2 — These Regulations apply to the sharing of government data among government departments and organizations authorized by laws and regulations to perform functions of administering public affairs (hereinafter collectively referred to as “government departments”), as well as the related security, supervision and administration work.

Article 3 — For the purposes of these Regulations, “government data” means all types of data collected or generated by government departments in the course of performing their duties in accordance with the law, excluding data that constitutes state secrets or work secrets.

For the purposes of these Regulations, “government data sharing” means the act of a government department, where necessary for the performance of its duties in accordance with the law, using the government data of another government department or providing government data to another government department.

Article 4 — Government data sharing work shall uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China, implement the overall national security concept, coordinate development and security, and follow the principles of overall coordination, unified standards, sharing in accordance with the law, reasonable use, and safety and controllability.

Article 5 — In carrying out government data sharing work, government departments shall observe laws and regulations, fulfill the obligation to protect the security of government data, and shall not endanger national security or the public interest, or prejudice the lawful rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organizations.

Article 6 — The State shall establish a standards system for government data sharing and promote the standardization and normalization of government data sharing work.

Article 7 — The State shall encourage management innovation, mechanism innovation and technological innovation in the field of government data sharing, and continuously improve the efficiency, application level and security assurance capability of government data sharing.

Chapter II — Administrative System

Article 8 — The people’s governments at all levels shall strengthen the organization and leadership of government data sharing work.

The department in charge of government data sharing under the State Council shall be responsible for advancing government data sharing work nationwide in a coordinated manner.

The departments in charge of government data sharing under the local people’s governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for advancing government data sharing work within their respective administrative regions in a coordinated manner.

Each department under the State Council shall be responsible for the government data sharing work of its own department, and shall coordinate and guide the government data sharing work in its own industry or field.

Article 9 — The departments in charge of government data sharing shall, in conjunction with other government departments, study major matters and important work in government data sharing, summarize and promote typical cases and experience in government data sharing, and coordinate the advancement of secure, orderly and efficient sharing and use of government data across levels, regions, systems, departments and business operations.

Article 10 — Government departments shall fulfill the primary responsibility for government data sharing, establish and improve their own working systems for government data sharing, and organize the study and resolution of major issues in government data sharing work.

Article 11 — Government departments shall designate a specific body responsible for their government data sharing work. The body responsible for government data sharing shall be responsible for the specific work of government data sharing in its department and shall perform the following duties:

(1) organizing the compilation, updating and maintenance of the department’s government data catalog;

(2) organizing the submission of applications for government data sharing by the department, organizing the examination of applications for sharing the department’s government data, and coordinating and sharing the department’s government data;

(3) ensuring that the government data provided by the department conforms to the standards and specifications for government data sharing;

(4) organizing the submission or handling of applications for verification of government data involving the department;

(5) establishing and improving the department’s systems for data security and personal information protection in government data sharing, and organizing the security assessment of the department’s government data sharing; and

(6) other work of the department related to government data sharing.

Chapter III — Catalog Management

Article 12 — Government data shall be subject to unified catalog management. The department in charge of government data sharing under the State Council shall formulate the standards and specifications for the compilation of government data catalogs and organize the compilation of the national government data catalog. The departments in charge of government data sharing under the local people’s governments at or above the county level shall organize the compilation of government data catalogs within their respective administrative regions.

Government departments shall, in accordance with their own duties and the standards and specifications for the compilation of government data catalogs, compile the government data catalog of their own department.

Article 13 — When compiling a government data catalog, government departments shall, in accordance with the law, carry out assessments of confidentiality risks and the impact on personal information protection, and obtain the review and approval of the person in charge of the department.

A government data catalog shall clearly specify such information as the name of the data catalog, the data items, the providing entity, the data format, the frequency of data updates, and the sharing attributes, sharing methods, conditions of use, and data classification and grading.

Article 14 — Government data shall be divided, according to its sharing attributes, into three categories: data available for unconditional sharing, data available for conditional sharing, and data not available for sharing:

(1) government data that may be provided to all government departments for sharing and use shall fall into the category of unconditional sharing;

(2) government data that may be provided, under certain conditions, to the relevant government departments for sharing and use shall fall into the category of conditional sharing; and

(3) government data that laws, administrative regulations and decisions of the State Council expressly provide may not be provided to other government departments for sharing and use shall fall into the category of non-sharing.

Article 15 — Government departments shall determine the sharing attributes of government data in a scientific and reasonable manner, and shall not obstruct or affect the sharing of government data by means such as adding conditions without authorization.

For government data falling into the category of conditional sharing, government departments shall specify in the government data catalog the conditions of sharing and use, such as the scope of sharing and the purposes of use. For government data falling into the category of non-sharing, government departments shall specify in the government data catalog the reasons, and clearly state the corresponding basis in laws, administrative regulations and decisions of the State Council.

Article 16 — Government departments shall submit the government data catalogs they have compiled to the department in charge of government data sharing at the same level for review. After review and approval, the department in charge of government data sharing shall uniformly notify the government departments.

Government departments shall, in light of the uniformly issued government data catalog, enrich government data resources, ensure the quality of government data, and share government data in accordance with the law.

Article 17 — Government data catalogs shall be subject to dynamic updating.

Where a government data catalog needs to be updated accordingly because of adjustments to laws, administrative regulations or decisions of the State Council, or because of changes in the duties of government departments, the government department shall complete the update of the government data catalog within 10 working days from the date on which the adjustment or change occurs, and submit it to the department in charge of government data sharing at the same level for review. Where the update period needs to be extended for special reasons, it may be extended by 5 working days with the consent of the department in charge of government data sharing at the same level.

The department in charge of government data sharing shall complete the review and issue the updated government data catalog within 2 working days from the date of receipt.

Chapter IV — Sharing and Use

Article 18 — Government departments shall establish and improve a whole-process quality management system for government data, improve their capability for government data quality management, and strengthen the standardized management of the collection, storage, processing, transmission, sharing, use and destruction of government data.

Article 19 — Government departments shall collect government data in accordance with the statutory functions and powers, procedures and standards. Where government data obtained through sharing can satisfy the needs of the performance of their duties, government departments shall not repeatedly collect such data from citizens, legal persons and other organizations.

Where the collection of government data involves multiple government departments, the department in charge of government data sharing shall designate the government department that takes the lead in collection and treat it as the source data department. The source data department shall strengthen coordination, cooperation and information communication with other relevant government departments, improve and update government data in a timely manner, ensure the completeness, accuracy and usability of government data, and provide government data sharing services in a unified manner.

Article 20 — The department in charge of government data sharing shall establish a mechanism for matching the supply of and demand for government data sharing and specify the working procedures.

A government department demanding government data shall, in accordance with the needs of the performance of its duties and the uniformly issued government data catalog, submit an application for government data sharing in accordance with the law with the consent of the person in charge of the department’s government data sharing body, clearly specifying the basis of use, the scenario of use, the scope of use, the sharing method, the period of use and other matters, and shall ensure the authenticity, legality and necessity of the application.

The government department providing government data shall examine, in accordance with the time limit specified in Article 21 of these Regulations, the application for government data sharing submitted by the demanding department, and give a reply with the consent of the person in charge of the department’s government data sharing body.

Article 21 — Where the government data for which sharing is applied falls into the category of unconditional sharing, the providing department shall give a reply within 1 working day from the date of receipt of the application for sharing. Where it falls into the category of conditional sharing, the providing department shall give a reply on whether to consent to the sharing within 10 working days from the date of receipt of the application for sharing. Where the reply period needs to be extended for special reasons, the providing department shall report to the department in charge of government data sharing at the same level for consent and notify the demanding department, and the extended period shall not exceed 10 working days.

Where the application materials submitted by the demanding department are incomplete, the providing department shall notify the demanding department of the materials that need to be supplemented in a single instance, and shall not directly reject the application. Where the providing department does not consent to the sharing, it shall state the reasons.

Article 22 — The government department providing government data shall share the government data within 20 working days from the date on which it makes the reply consenting to the sharing.

The providing department may share government data with the demanding department through service interfaces, batch exchange, file download and other means.

Article 23 — The State shall encourage government departments at all levels to optimize the examination procedures for government data sharing and shorten the time for examination and for providing shared government data.

Article 24 — Government departments at higher levels shall, in accordance with the needs of the performance of duties by government departments at lower levels and on the premise of ensuring the security of government data, promptly and completely return the government data within the administrative regions of lower-level governments that is collected and generated by business information systems, and shall do a good job of system interconnection and business coordination, and shall not set additional restrictive conditions.

After obtaining the returned government data, government departments at lower levels shall share and use it in accordance with the needs of the performance of their duties, and ensure the security of the relevant government data.

Article 25 — Where government departments obtain government data through sharing, they shall not expand the scope of use without authorization, use the data for other purposes or for disguised other purposes, or provide the government data obtained to third parties without authorization. Where it is truly necessary to expand the scope of use, use the data for other purposes or provide the data to third parties, the consent of the government department providing the data shall be obtained.

The departments in charge of government data sharing and other government departments shall take measures to prevent the risk of disclosure arising from the aggregation and correlation of government data.

Article 26 — The department in charge of government data sharing under the State Council shall establish, in a coordinated manner, a system for the verification and correction of government data.

Government departments shall, in accordance with their own duties, establish rules for the verification and correction of government data and provide channels for correction. A government department demanding government data shall record the state of use of government data and, upon discovering that government data is inaccurate or incomplete, shall promptly submit an application for verification of the government data to the providing department. The providing department shall verify, correct and feed back the result of the verification within 10 working days from the date of receipt of the application for verification.

Article 27 — Where the purpose of sharing has been achieved, cannot be achieved, or is no longer necessary for achieving the purpose of sharing, the government department demanding government data shall properly dispose of the government data obtained through sharing in accordance with the requirements of the providing department.

Where a government department demanding government data uses government data beyond the scope of use or the purpose of sharing without authorization, or provides government data to third parties without authorization, the department in charge of government data sharing or the providing department shall suspend its authority to share government data, urge it to rectify within a specified time limit, and may terminate the sharing where it refuses to rectify or the rectification is not in place.

The government department providing government data shall not terminate or change the government data sharing services already provided without justifiable reasons. Where it is truly necessary to terminate or change the services, the providing department shall consult with the demanding department and report to the department in charge of government data sharing at the same level for the record.

Article 28 — The department in charge of government data sharing shall establish and improve a mechanism for resolving disputes over government data sharing.

Where a dispute over government data sharing arises between a government department demanding government data and a government department providing government data at the same level, they shall resolve it through consultation; where consultation fails, they may apply to the department in charge of government data sharing at the same level for coordination in accordance with procedures. Where a dispute arises in cross-level or cross-region government data sharing, it shall be handled through coordination by the common higher-level department in charge of government data sharing. Where consensus is still not reached after coordination by the department in charge of government data sharing, the matter shall be reported to the people’s government at the level of the department in charge of government data sharing for decision.

Article 29 — The department in charge of government data sharing shall supervise and inspect government data sharing, and may give notice of criticism for acts in violation of these Regulations.

A government department demanding government data shall keep records of the scenarios of use, the process of use, the results of application, the state of storage and the state of destruction of shared government data, and the relevant records shall be kept for no less than 3 years. The department in charge of government data sharing and the providing department may consult the relevant records of the demanding department. Where laws and administrative regulations provide otherwise, those provisions shall prevail.

Chapter V — Platform Support

Article 30 — The State shall coordinate the construction of data infrastructure, improve the security protection capability for government data, and integrate and build a nationwide integrated government big data system that is standard-unified, rationally laid out, coordinately managed, and safe and reliable.

The department in charge of government data sharing under the State Council shall coordinate the construction and management of the nationwide integrated government big data system, and be responsible for integrating and building the national government big data platform, realizing interconnection with the government data platforms of the relevant departments under the State Council and of various regions, and providing platform support for government data sharing.

The departments in charge of government data sharing under the local people’s governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for the construction and management of government data platforms within their respective administrative regions, and shall share government data with townships (subdistricts) and villages (communities) as needed.

The relevant departments under the State Council shall be responsible for building and optimizing their own government data platforms, and may support the government data sharing work in their own industries or fields. Where a government data platform has not been built, a department may carry out its own government data sharing work through the national government big data platform.

Article 31 — Government data platforms already built by government departments shall be incorporated into the nationwide integrated government big data system. Except as otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations, in principle, cross-level, cross-region, cross-system, cross-department and cross-business government data sharing shall not be carried out by newly building government data sharing and exchange systems.

Article 32 — Government departments shall carry out work related to government data sharing through the nationwide integrated government big data system.

Article 33 — The State shall encourage and support the application of new technologies such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and blockchain in government data sharing.

Chapter VI — Safeguard Measures

Article 34 — The department in charge of government data sharing shall, in conjunction with the cyberspace administration, public security, national security, confidentiality administration, cryptography administration and other departments at the same level, advance the construction of a security management system for government data sharing in accordance with the classified and graded data protection system, and shall, in accordance with the principle that whoever manages bears responsibility and whoever uses bears responsibility, specify the entities responsible for security at each link of government data sharing and urge the fulfillment of security management responsibilities for government data sharing.

Where government data is tampered with, destroyed, disclosed or illegally used in the course of the use of lawfully shared government data by a government department demanding the data, the department shall bear security management responsibility.

Article 35 — Government departments shall establish and improve security management systems for government data sharing, fulfill the primary responsibility for security management of government data sharing and the requirements for classified and graded management of government data, and ensure the security of government data sharing.

Government departments shall take technical measures and other necessary measures to prevent government data from being tampered with, destroyed, disclosed, or illegally obtained or illegally used.

Government departments shall strengthen the monitoring of government data security risks and, upon the occurrence of a government data security incident, immediately activate emergency plans, take corresponding emergency response measures, prevent the expansion of harm, eliminate security hazards, and report to the relevant competent departments in accordance with provisions.

Article 36 — Where government departments entrust others to participate in the construction, operation and maintenance of government informatization projects or to store and process government data, they shall go through approval procedures in accordance with relevant state provisions, specify work norms and standards, take necessary technical measures, and supervise the entrusted party in fulfilling the corresponding government data security protection obligations. The entrusted party shall fulfill government data security protection obligations in accordance with laws and administrative regulations and the contract, and shall not access, obtain, retain, use, disclose or provide government data to others without authorization.

The entities responsible for the construction and management of government data platforms shall ensure the secure and stable operation of the platforms and maintain the security of government data in accordance with laws and administrative regulations and the mandatory requirements of national standards.

Article 37 — When carrying out government data sharing activities involving personal information, government departments and their staff shall observe the Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Regulations on the Security Management of Network Data and other laws and administrative regulations.

Citizens, legal persons and other organizations shall have the right to complain about and report acts that infringe upon their lawful rights and interests in the course of government data sharing, and the government department receiving the complaint or report shall handle it in a timely manner in accordance with provisions.

Article 38 — The people’s governments at or above the county level shall include the funds needed for government data sharing work in their budgets at the corresponding level. The people’s governments at or above the county level and their relevant departments shall implement whole-process budget performance management over the funds related to government data sharing. The state of government data sharing shall serve as an important basis for determining the construction investment and operation and maintenance funds of government informatization projects and the results of post-project evaluation.

The department in charge of government data sharing shall strengthen supervision over the timeliness and data quality of data sharing by government data providing departments and over the data application and security safeguard measures of government data demanding departments within its administrative region, and shall report to the people’s government at the corresponding level.

Chapter VII — Legal Liability

Article 39 — Where a government department providing government data, in violation of these Regulations, falls under any of the following circumstances, it shall be ordered by the department in charge of government data sharing at the same level to make corrections; where it refuses to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, the leading personnel and directly responsible personnel shall be given sanctions in accordance with the law:

(1) failing to compile or update the government data catalog as required;

(2) obstructing or affecting government data sharing by means such as adding conditions without authorization;

(3) failing to cooperate with the source data department in improving and updating government data in a timely manner;

(4) failing to reply to an application for government data sharing in a timely manner or failing to share government data in a timely manner without justifiable reasons;

(5) failing to return to government departments at lower levels, in accordance with provisions, the government data within the administrative regions of lower-level governments that is collected and generated by business information systems;

(6) failing to verify and correct government data in a timely manner after receiving an application for verification;

(7) terminating or changing government data sharing services already provided without authorization;

(8) failing to incorporate government data platforms already built into the nationwide integrated government big data system in accordance with provisions; or

(9) other circumstances in violation of these Regulations.

Article 40 — Where a government department demanding government data, in violation of these Regulations, falls under any of the following circumstances, it shall be ordered by the department in charge of government data sharing at the same level to make corrections; where it refuses to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, the leading personnel and directly responsible personnel shall be given sanctions in accordance with the law:

(1) repeatedly collecting government data that can be obtained through sharing;

(2) using government data obtained through sharing beyond the scope of use or the purpose of sharing without authorization;

(3) providing government data obtained through sharing to third parties without authorization;

(4) where the purpose of sharing has been achieved, cannot be achieved, or is no longer necessary for achieving the purpose of sharing, failing to properly dispose of the government data obtained through sharing in accordance with the requirements;

(5) failing to keep records relating to government data obtained through sharing in accordance with provisions;

(6) failing to fulfill security management responsibility for government data obtained through sharing; or

(7) other circumstances in violation of these Regulations.

Article 41 — Where the department in charge of government data sharing, in violation of these Regulations, falls under any of the following circumstances, it shall be ordered by the people’s government at the corresponding level or the competent department at a higher level to make corrections; where it refuses to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, the leading personnel and directly responsible personnel shall be given sanctions in accordance with the law:

(1) failing to designate the source data department in accordance with provisions;

(2) failing to coordinate and handle disputes over government data sharing in accordance with provisions; or

(3) other circumstances in violation of these Regulations.

Article 42 — Where government departments and their staff disclose, sell or illegally provide to others personal privacy, personal information, trade secrets or confidential business information learned in the course of government data sharing work, or neglect their duties, abuse their power, or practice favoritism in government data sharing work, they shall be given sanctions in accordance with the law; where a crime is constituted, criminal liability shall be pursued in accordance with the law.

Chapter VIII — Supplementary Provisions

Article 43 — The State shall encourage government departments to carry out data sharing with other state organs in accordance with these Regulations and in light of the needs of the performance of their respective duties.

Article 44 — These Regulations shall come into force on August 1, 2025.