China Unicom boss Liu Liehong tipped to be named head of new data bureau

Bureau was unveiled in a reshuffle in March and is expected to be a key tool to develop the digital economy
Liu has worked in electronics and information technology for decades and will be its first director, sources say

China technology

SCMP Reporters

Published: 7:30pm, 18 Jul 2023

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Beijing is expected to name the chief of state-owned telecoms firm China Unicom as head of its new National Data Bureau, according to people familiar with the situation.

They said Liu Liehong, 54, would be the first director of the bureau overseeing data security and digitalisation, which analysts expect will be a key tool for Beijing to develop the digital economy.

The decision was said to have been made last week, with arrangements to staff the new government body under way.

The new bureau – unveiled in March as part of a restructure of party and state institutions – is managed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner.

It was one of a handful of new bodies established in the reshuffle that has given the ruling Communist Party more direct control over the country’s tech drive, financial regulation, and policies on Hong Kong and Macau.

President Xi Jinping has said all of the newly created bodies are to be set up this year with local branches established by the end of 2024, according to a February speech published in party journal Qiushi on Saturday.

The bureau is tasked with “coordinating and promoting the construction of data infrastructure, coordinating the integration, sharing, development and utilisation of data resources” across China’s economy and society, according to the State Council. It is also responsible for “coordinating the digital economy, the planning and construction of the digital society”.

It has taken over many responsibilities from the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, where Liu was deputy director from 2018 to 2020. At that time he was also deputy head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, the top internet regulator.

The bureau also has the task of regulating the digital economy and implementing the nation’s big data strategy, both previously the responsibility of the NDRC.

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Liu, a Sichuan native, has been chairman of China Unicom since August 2021. He took over that role after serving as vice-minister of industry and information technology for about a year from June 2020.

Liu has a doctorate in management and began his career as an engineer in 1990 at a research institute under the former Ministry of Machine Building and Electronics Industries, according to his official biography.

He spent more than three decades working in electronics and information technology. In 2004, Liu became deputy general manager of the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.

He took up the job of general manager of China Electronics Corporation in 2009, another key state-owned enterprise in the information and communications tech sector.

In that role, Liu attended an internet industry forum in Washington in 2015 and was pictured in a group photo with other executives and Xi at the Microsoft campus during the Chinese president’s state visit to the US.

Liu Liehong (back row, fourth left), then CEC general manager, with other executives and President Xi Jinping (front row, centre) at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington in 2015. Photo: Reuters

As head of China Unicom, Liu has delivered speeches and spoken in media interviews on 5G, cybersecurity, the digital economy and tech innovation.

Addressing a forum in Guangzhou in May, he referred to China Unicom as “the national team for cloud computing and the pioneer of digital technology integration and innovation”. He said the telecoms giant would grasp the “vast opportunities for transformation into a science and technology innovative enterprise embracing the digital economy”.

In recent months, Liu – an alternate member of the party’s Central Committee – has also visited Nanchang and Chongqing, meeting local officials to discuss the development of digital infrastructure.

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