Ignore them, and you’re not just risking fines, you’re lighting $1B in future revenue on fire.
I’ve watched too many Western IT teams swagger into China with their “world-class compliance,” only to get crushed. The mistakes are always the same:
Red flag #1: Cross-border data transfers without legal basis
If you’re shipping Chinese user data to U.S.
servers “because that’s how we’ve always done it,”
congratulations, you’ve just handed regulators the rope to hang you.
Under PIPL, there are zero exceptions.
Red flag #2: No local data residency strategy
Thinking you can operate in China while storing critical data abroad?
That’s not just naive, it’s illegal.
The Cybersecurity Law requires local storage for key infrastructure operators and Beijing doesn’t negotiate.
Red flag #3: Generic security frameworks
Your shiny SOC 2 certificate? Worthless here.
Regulators want MLPS compliance and government-approved network security reviews. Anything else is theater.
I watched a fintech player get shut down overnight because they ignored this.
Three months and $5M later, they crawled back into compliance
That’s pocket change compared to the billion in lost growth they’ll never recover.
The fix isn’t “patchwork compliance.” It’s China-specific architecture from day one.
Have you had the guts to assess your setup against Chinese regulatory requirements or are you waiting to be made an example of?