U.S. and Chinese negotiators are discussing adding a concession on cloud computing to their trade agreement that would give foreign companies greater access to the $12 billion Chinese market, people familiar with the talks said.
Chinese officials called a meeting this week with representatives of companies including Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc to talk about the proposal in detail, said one of the people. The discussions include possibly scrapping the requirement that providers of remote computing services form joint ventures with local companies, another person said. Both asked not to be named discussing the private negotiations.
China introduced sweeping cyber-security laws in 2017 that bolster control over the collection and movement of Chinese users’ data, and potentially grant the government more access to foreign companies’ technology. Foreign cloud companies are required to license their technology to local partners in order to operate in China, and have been forced to store some information within the country.
[To read the original article, click here.]