Criminal Law Protection of Personal Information of Citizens in China: Doctrine, Legislative Regulation, Enforcement

In the information era, the Chinese society lives under the influence of digital technologies, so the collection and analysis of information are no longer accidental and unpredictable. Digitalized private information poses a great interest, making it necessary to understand the interconnection between modern social development and crime counteraction in the sphere of personal information of citizens. The authors analyze norms of the Chinese legislation that regulate criminal liability for infringements on personal information protected by the Chinese law. This analysis was conducted from the viewpoint of the doctrine of criminal law, criminal legislation and law enforcement practice. The doctrine is presented through different approaches to understanding the nature of personal information in China; the authors also show the necessity of developing a concept of information criminal law and building a hierarchical system of criminal law protection. In the sphere of legislative regulation, the analyzed infringements include only three types of actions in the current Criminal Code of the PRC: illegal purchase, sale and provision of personal information. At the same time, there is no norm regulating its illegal use which is, in fact, a publicly dangerous act. The authors show the necessity of criminalizing the use of personal information with the purpose of building a strategy of its criminal law protection. As for the enforcement of the norm «Violations in the sphere of personal information of citizens» (Art. 253.1 of the CC of the PRC), insufficient arguments and incomplete establishment of the circumstances of the infringement often result in differences in the qualification and sentencing for similar criminal cases. The authors show that, to overcome these problems, it is necessary to clearly determine the elements of the objective side of this crime. They present ways of solving the problems of law enforcement arising during the qualification of infringements on personal information and the determination of punishment when passing sentences in court.