China to name Unicom CEO Liu Liehong as head of new data bureau

Liu, 54, an electronics and information technology veteran who also serves as China Unicom’s chairman, will take the helm of the National Data Bureau in the coming days, the sources told Reuters.

China announced plans for the data bureau in March as part of a sweeping government reshuffle. Its responsibilities will include planning China’s digital economy as well as the sharing and development of the country’s data resources, promoting smart cities and the exchange of information resources across industries.

Its formation is part of efforts to achieve President Xi Jinping’s vision of a “digital China”, where data is managed alongside labour and capital as a key economic driver. The country has also cracked down on data security, rolling out new curbs in areas such as information exports.

In February, China unveiled a plan for the country to lead digital development globally by 2035.

The bureau will be a vice-ministerial level regulator in a sign of its political importance, said three sources, putting it on the same level as China’s National Anti-monopoly Bureau, whose status was elevated in 2021 during a heavy antitrust crackdown.

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Some staff of the NDRC’s Innovation and High-Tech Development Department, which is responsible for China’s big data strategy, will move to the new data bureau, said the three sources. China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), will also transfer some staff to the data bureau, said one source.

The State Council Information Office, which handles media queries on behalf of the government, did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

The NDRC and CAC did not immediately respond either.

The Hong Kong-listed arm of China Unicom said in a response to Reuters it would make an announcement on the city’s stock exchange if there was any change in the board or management structure of the company.

“Whether Mr. Liu Liehong will take up any role in the National Data Bureau shall be subject to the decision of the PRC government,” it added.

A native of Chengdu city in Sichuan province, Liu has more than three decades’ experience in the electronics and IT industry. The relatively low-profile technocrat cut his teeth at a state-owned research institute as an engineer in 1990.

He later worked at state-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) in 2004 and rose the ranks to become its president five years later.

In 2018, Liu was appointed as vice head of the CAC. Two years later, he became the vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, where he managed 5G projects, according to local media.

He was elevated to an elite body of the ruling Communist Party, by becoming an alternate member of the party’s new Central Committee at its twice-a-decade congress last year.