Art. 25 of the Law on Guarding State Secrets prohibits the export of carriers containing state secrets. According to Art. 17, such carriers include paper, optical, and electromagnetic media that bear state secrets. This law revises legislation of the same name from 1988, in which Art. 26 prohibited the cross-border transfer of any data containing state secrets.

According to Arts. 11 and 12 of the Provisions on Management of Automotive Data Security (Trial), important data must be stored domestically in compliance with legal requirements. If cross-border data transfer is necessary, security assessments must be conducted in coordination with the Cyberspace Administration of China and other relevant governmental authorities. Furthermore, the Management Provisions stipulate that vehicle data processors who provide important data to foreign entities must adhere strictly to the purpose, scope, method, type, and scale of data as specified in the security assessment. Data categorized as important includes video and image data captured outside of vehicles that contain facial information and personal information pertaining to 100,000 or more identified or identifiable vehicle owners, drivers, passengers, and individuals outside the vehicles.

Art. 5 of the Interim Measures mandates that online taxi reservation platforms must maintain their servers within the territorial boundaries of China.

According to Section 13 of the Guiding Opinions on Encouraging and Regulating the Development of Internet Rental Bicycles, companies offering internet-based bicycle rental services are required to establish domestic servers and store operational data collected within China.

China has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

Arts. 8 and 9 of the Online Publishing Service Management Rules mandate that the servers and storage equipment of online publishers must be situated within the borders of China.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) acts as the telecommunications authority in the country, and therefore, there is no independence from the government in its decision-making process.

Art. 40 of the Personal Information Protection Law provides that critical information infrastructure operators and personal information processors handling personal information must store personal information collected and produced within the borders of China. Where such information needs to be provided abroad, they shall pass a security assessment organised by the National Cyberspace Department. Also, according to Art. 38, the processors of personal information must apply one of the conditions to provide information outside of the PRC: passing the security assessment organised by the National Cyberspace Department; obtaining personal information protection certification from the relevant specialised institution according to the provisions issued by the national cyberspace department; concluding a contract stipulating both parties' rights and obligations with the overseas recipient following the standard contract formulated by the national cyberspace department; and meeting other conditions set forth by laws and administrative regulations and by the national cyberspace department.
Where a processor of personal information provides personal information outside the People's Republic of China, it is required to inform the individual of the name or names of the overseas recipient, the contact information, the purpose of processing, the manner of processing, the type of personal information, as well as the manner and procedure for the individual to exercise his or her rights under this Law with the overseas recipient, and obtain the individual's consent (Art. 39). Personal information processors shall not provide personal information stored in the People's Republic of China to foreign judicial or law enforcement agencies without the approval of the competent authorities of the People's Republic of China (Art. 41).

The "Notice of the People's Bank of China on Protecting Personal Financial Information by Banking Financial Institutions" states that the processing of personal information collected by commercial banks must be stored, handled and analysed within the territory of China, and such personal information is not allowed to be transferred overseas (paragraph 6).
The Personal Financial Information Protection Technical Specification (PFI Specification) regulates “any personal information collected, processed and stored by Financial Institutions during the provision of financial products and services" (PFI). The PFI specification requires that PFI collected or generated in mainland China is stored, processed and analysed within the territory. Further, under the PFI Specification, where there is a business need for cross-border transfer of personal financial information (PFI) and the financial institution obtains explicit consent to the transfer from the personal financial information subjects (i.e. the persons under the PFI Specification providing the data), conducts a security assessment and then supervises the offshore recipient to ensure responsible processing, storage and deletion of PFI (Section 7.1.3).

Art. 5.4.5. of the Guidelines for Personal Information Protection Within Public and Commercial Services Information Systems prohibit the transfer of personal data abroad without the express consent of the data subject, government permission or explicit regulatory approval "absent express consent of the subject of the personal information, or explicit legal or regulatory permission, or absent the consent of the competent authorities". If these conditions are not fulfilled, "the administrator of personal information shall not transfer the personal information to any overseas receiver of personal information, including any individuals located overseas or any organisations and institutions registered overseas." Although the Guidelines are a voluntary technical document, they might serve as a regulatory basis for judicial authorities and lawmakers.

Population health information needs to be stored and processed within China. In addition, storage is not allowed overseas (Art. 10).

China instituted a licensing system for online taxi companies, which requires that personal information and business data should be stored and used in mainland China and must not be transferred outside of China (Art. 27 of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Taxi Booking Business Operations and Services). Such information should be retained for two years, except when otherwise required by other laws and regulations. The Measurement also states that taxi companies' servers should be set up in Mainland China, with a network security management system and technical measures for security protection in compliance with regulations (Art. 5.2).

According to Art. 34 of Map Management Regulations, online maps are required to set up their server inside the country and acquire an official certificate.

It is reported that China's Telecommunications Regulations require all data collected within the country to be stored on Chinese servers. However, the relevant article has not been found in the regulations. Moreover, it is reported that, as a result of this regulation, Hewlett-Packard, Qualcomm, and Uber had to divest more than 50% of their businesses in China to Chinese companies to avoid fines.

Art. 37 of the Cybersecurity Law requires "key information infrastructure" operators to store personal information and critical data within China. Personal information and critical data can be stored outside of China where there is a genuine need for business; in such cases a "security assessment" needs to be conducted in accordance with procedures formulated by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) in collabouration with other authorities.
Art. 4 of the Outbound Data Transfer Security Assessment Measures, promulgated by the CAC, outlines four situations where a security assessment is necessary before an outbound transfer can take place, which include:
1) Cases where the transfer concerns “important data”, which is broadly defined as data that could endanger national security, economic operation, social stability, public health and safety;
2) Cases the transfer concerns personal data by a critical information infrastructure operator or processor of personal information that processed data for 1 million or more individuals;
3) Cases of transfers concerning personal data by a personal information processor that has made outbound transfers of personal information of 100,000 individuals or sensitive personal information of 10,000 persons in the preceding year;
4) Any other situation where the CAC deems a security assessment necessary.
Art. 8 of the Measures covers the factors the CAC considers when undertaking a security assessment, including:
- The risks that the transfer may entail for national security or public interests, among other policy objectives;
- Legitimacy, necessity and method of transfer;
- Whether the level of data protection in the recipient country meets the requirements of laws in China;
- Sensitivity of the data and risks of being tampered with abroad;
- Agreed safeguard measures between the data processor and data recipient;
- Any other matter that the CAC deems necessary.
In case of unfavourable outcomes, the data handler can ask the CAC for a re-assessment and a final decision. In case of a positive decision, the permission to transfer data abroad is valid for two years, but if substantial changes in the risk factors arise, a new assessment might be needed.