Alibaba,
XPeng
and other popular U.S.-listed Chinese stocks were surging early Friday after Beijing proposed easing rules on cross-border data flows.
The Cyberspace Administration of China’s proposal would mean that data transfers relating to international trade, global manufacturing and marketing activities that don’t contain personal data no longer need to go through a security review. It’s seen as a move to boost business activity in the world’s second-largest economy, and is particularly good news for the country’s multinational companies.
U.S.traded Chinese technology stocks climbed ahead of the open, with
Alibaba
(ticker: BABA) American depositary receipts (ADRs) up 2.2% and
JD.com
ADRs (JD) rising 3%. China’s electric-vehicle makers were also given a boost–
Nio
(
NIO
) and
XPeng
(XPEV) both rose 3.5%, while
Li Auto
(LI) jumped 2.2%.
“Over the past two years, the PIPL (Personal Information Protection Law) and the cross-border rules have posed tremendous challenges for businesses. These carve-outs will come as a huge relief to them,” Angela Zhang, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said in a post on X.
She added that the implications go beyond data transfers, and said the proposal “clearly aims to send a strong pro-growth signal to the market and inject more confidence in businesses.”
In Hong Kong trading, Alibaba shares closed 3.1% up,
JD.com
rose 3.6%, while XPeng jumped 8.4%.
Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]
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