Cyberspace Administration of China
The Cyberspace Administration of China is the national internet content regulator and censor of the People's Republic of China.
The agency was initially established in 2011 by the State Council as the State Internet Information Office, a subgroup of the State Council Information Office. In 2014, the SIIO was renamed in English as the Cyberspace Administration of China, and transformed into the executive arm of the newly established Central Leading Group for Cybersecurity and Informatization of the Chinese Communist Party, which was promoted to the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission in 2018. The CAC and the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission are one institution with two names.
The CAC plays a key role in the CCP's control over the Chinese Internet. Its functions include issuing and enforcing rules about online content and regulating cybersecurity, data security, and privacy through rulemaking, administrative licensing and punishment activities. The CAC's current director is Zhuang Rongwen, who concurrently serves as a Deputy Head of the CCP's Publicity Department of the CCP Central Committee.
History
On 5 May 2011, the State Council approved the establishment of the State Internet Information Office. The SIIO was initially a subgroup of the State Council Information Office, which was an external name of the External Propaganda Office of the Chinese Communist Party. The first SIIO director was Wang Chen, who was also the director of the SCIO. Though initially a nameplate of the SCIO, SIIO soon gained full-time staff.Reforms in February 2014 led to the creation of the Central Leading Group for Cybersecurity and Information. The SIIO was transformed to become the external name of the Central Leading Group's general office. It additionally changed its name in English to the Cyberspace Administration of China, while its Chinese name stayed the same.
Further reforms in February 2018 upgraded the Central Leading Group to the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission as part of the deepening the reform of the Party and state institutions, with the CAC staying as the executive arm of the commission. The reforms also put the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China under the CAC.
Structure
The Cyberspace Administration of China and the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission of the CCP, its executive arm, are one institution with two names. The CAC is involved in the formulation and implementation of policy on a variety of issues related to the internet in China. It is under direct jurisdiction of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, a party institution subordinate to the CCP Central Committee. The Director of both the state and party institutions is Zhuang Rongwen, who serves concurrently as a Deputy Head of the CCP's Central Committee Publicity Department., the CAC includes the following departments: an Internet Security Emergency Command Center, an Agency Service Center, and an China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center. The China Cyberspace Research Institute sits under the CAC. Unlike most other Chinese administrative agencies, the CAC does not regularly publish information about its organizational structure, structure, budget, duties as well as its personnel arrangements, except for brief biographies of its director and deputy directors. Many of the CAC's regulatory functions are delegated to the China Electronic Technology Standardization Institute. The institute tests cybersecurity compliance and data protection.
The CAC has authority over the China Internet Investment Fund, which has golden share ownership stakes in technology firms such as ByteDance, Weibo Corporation, SenseTime, and Kuaishou. The CAC additionally organizes the World Internet Conference.
Directors
Role
The CAC is the national internet regulation agency in China. It is responsible for the content management and law enforcement of the Internet in China. Its functions include rulemaking, administrative licensing and punishment activities. It issues and enforces rules about online content and regulates cybersecurity, data security, and privacy.The CAC implements information-dissemination guidelines and policies, regulates internet information content and management, supervises network news businesses, and investigates illegal or non-regulatory compliant websites. The CAC maintains censorship functions, including issuing directives to media companies in China. After a campaign to arrest almost 200 lawyers and activists in China, the CAC published a directive saying that "All websites must, without exception, use as the standard official and authoritative media reports with regards to the detention of trouble-making lawyers by the relevant departments." The CAC has also been given the responsibility for reviewing the security of devices made by foreign countries.
Since its founding in 2011, CAC had the authority to issue punitive orders, including imposing fines, license revocations, and business closures. The initial powers and legal basis of the CAC came from a 2014 authorization by the State Council. According to the Cybersecurity Law passed in 2016, "state cybersecurity and information departments", generally regarded to refer to the CAC, have the authority to plan and coordinate cybersecurity and related regulation with other regulatory agencies with overlapping or complementary jurisdiction. Since 2017, the CAC has also been publishing legally-binding departmental rules, issued by State Council administrative agencies. The Data Security Law passed in 2021 tasked CAC with online data security and export of important data, while the Personal Information Protection Law passed in 2021 granted CAC with powers for planning, coordinating and supervising personal information protection work, retaliating its authority over control of personal information overseas.
Due to the CAC's political and regulatory roles, Rogier Creemers at Leiden University argues that it is the world's most powerful digital institution. It serves as the executive arm of the CCP CCAC, has regulatory power over online content, is responsible for protecting personal information and data, and has direct authority over China's DNS registry, the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China, the cybersecurity standardization body TC260, and the Cybersecurity Association of China.
Policies
Internet sovereignty
In 2017, the CAC issued a rule stating that nonpublic capital should not be allowed to invest in internet-based newsgathering. In 2022, the CAC issued measures and guidelines on security assessments for cross-border data transfers as part of an effort to institutionalize data transfer review mechanisms.Censorship
In 2015, the CAC was also responsible for chasing down Internet users and web sites that published "rumors" following an explosion in the port city of Tianjin. Such rumors included claims that blasts killed 1,000 people, or that there was looting, or leadership ructions as a result of the blast. The same year, the CAC debuted a song that Paul Mozur of The New York Times called "a throwback to revolutionary songs glorifying the state." The song included the lines: “Unified with the strength of all living things, Devoted to turning the global village into the most beautiful scene” and “An Internet power: Tell the world that the Chinese Dream is uplifting China.” The efforts of the CAC have been linked with a broader push by the Xi Jinping administration, characterized by Xiao Qiang, head of China Digital Times, as a "ferocious assault on civil society."In 2020, the CAC issued the Provisions on the Governance of the Online Information Content Ecosystem, requiring "online information content service platforms" to create mechanisms that allow them to conduct "real-time inspections, emergency response, and the handling of online rumors". It also says platforms "must not transmit" information deemed "illegal", and "shall prevent and resist the transmission" of "negative" information.
In May 2020, the CAC announced the Operation Qinglang to "clean up" online political and religious content deemed "illegal." In July 2020, the CAC commenced a three-month censorship action on We-Media in China. In December 2020, the CAC removed 105 apps, including that of Tripadvisor, from China's app stores that were deemed "illegal" in a move to "clean up China's internet". A 2020 investigation by ProPublica and The New York Times found that CAC systematically placed censorship restrictions on Chinese media outlets and social media to avoid mentions of the COVID-19 outbreak, mentions of Li Wenliang, and "activated legions of fake online commenters to flood social sites with distracting chatter".
In 2021, CAC launched a hotline to report online comments against the Chinese Communist Party, including comments which it deemed historical nihilism. In 2022, CAC published rules that mandate that all online comments must be pre-reviewed before being published. During the 2022 COVID-19 protests in China, the CAC directed companies such as Tencent and ByteDance to intensify their censorship efforts. In January 2023, CAC ordered any content displaying "gloomy emotions" to be censored during Lunar New Year celebrations as part of its "Spring Festival internet environment rectification" campaign. In December 2023, CAC launched a crackdown on content "spreading wrong views on marriage". In September 2025, CAC launched a campaign to curb content about "negative outlooks on life" such as "lying flat."