The British Chamber of Commerce in China called on Beijing to provide more clarity on draft regulations on cybersecurity, saying the lack of information is holding back business operations.
“Fundamentally, the legislation remains vague,” St John Moore, chairman of the chamber, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Wednesday. Specifically, a lack of detail on requirements on cross-border data transfers has made businesses err on the side of caution and limited their ability to build global research and development operations, he said.
The chamber on Wednesday released a position paper on U.K. business in China, highlighting some of the challenges around cybersecurity and information technology. The uncertainty and administrative burden that foreign companies face in this area could increasingly hamper China’s ambition to become a leader in multinational innovation, it said in the report.
Moore also cited China’s travel restrictions as another top concern of businesses, saying there needs to be a way to ensure safe travel between the U.K. and China. This should be a matter of priority as the number of vaccinated people in the U.K. increases and China’s virus situation stays largely under control.