Between the Lines in the China Region Special Section

As I read the special section on the China Region (Nov. 2018), I thought privacy in China deserved better treatment than was expressed in the section's foreword "Welcome to the China Region Special Section" by co-organizers Wenguang Chen and Xiang-Yang Li, that "People in China seem less sensitive about privacy." It sounded almost identical to what Robin Li, CEO and co-founder of Baidu, said in a talk at the March 2018 China Development Forum that was not well received by China's Internet users.²

A March 2018 survey of 100,000 Chinese households by CCTV and Tencent Research reported 76.3% of participants view AI as a threat to privacy.¹ Other global privacy surveys, including one by KPMG, reported privacy awareness in China as far more prevalent than the authors seemed to imply.