THE CONCEPTUAL BASIS OF PRIVACY STANDARDS IN CHINA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR CHINA’S PRIVACY LAW

Abstract

China has one of the longest histories of civilization in the world. In ancient China, civil disputes were solved by moral principles of Confucianism, called li (礼). Therefore, at the time of the emergence of li, privacy was indirectly protected to some extent. However, li also restrained the legal privacy protection at that time. Moreover, the substantial meaning of traditional protection for privacy is quite different from that in modern society. In consequence, it is difficult to postulate that there was legal protection for privacy in ancient China, though privacy had been indirectly protected by the theory of li. If the right to privacy is seen as a milestone in its evolution in modern society, the modern concept and protection of privacy emerged in China almost a century later than in some Western countries. 1 The first consideration for the protection of privacy in China was a judicial interpretation by the Supreme Court in 1988.2 Since then, China has been developing its own protection for privacy. This article is to explore privacy standards in both ancient and modern China with two main parts: (a) The first part discusses the privacy in ancient China, including traditional Chinese concepts of privacy, traditional Chinese protection for privacy, and its evaluation; (b) the second part examines the privacy standards and privacy protection in modern China.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Thomson Reuters