· Document Number：No. 39 [2009] of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

· Area of Law： Government Affairs

· Level of Authority： Group Provisions

· Date issued：12-18-2009

· Effective Date：12-18-2009

· Status： Effective

· Issuing Authority： General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (General Office, CCCPC) General Office of the State Council

Interim Measures for the Administration of Electronic Documents
(No. 39 [2009] of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Councilon December 18, 2009)
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 For purposes of regulating the administration of electronic documents, ensuring theauthenticity, integrity, availability and security of electronic documents, preserving the national historical records, promoting the development and utilization of information resources, and promoting the healthy development of national information technologies, these Measures are developed in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations of the state.
Article 2 For the purpose of these Measures, “electronic documents” means the texts, charts, images, audio, video and other information records in various forms formed, handled, transmitted and stored via computers and other electronic equipment by organs, groups, enterprises, public institutions and other organizations in the process of the handling of official business.
Article 3 The administration of electronic documents shall observe the rules on the formation and utilization of electronic documents under the circumstance of using information technologies, and adhere to the following basic principles:
(1) Unified administration. The overall planning and unified administration system shall be implemented for the administration of electronic documents, and the electronic documents worthy of preservation shall be administered in a concentrated manner.
(2) Whole-process administration. The whole-process administration of the formation, handling, transmission, preservation, utilization and destruction of electronic documents shall be conducted so as to ensure that electronic documents are always under control.
(3) Specifications and standards. Unified standards and specifications shall be developed to conduct the standardized administration of electronic documents.
(4) Convenience for use. The advantages of efficiency and convenience of electronic documents shall be maximized to provide shared applications classified by levels and categories for valuable documents.
(5) Security and confidentiality. In accordance with the relevant laws and regulations and specifications and standards of the state, effective technical means and administration measures shall be taken to ensure the information security of electronic documents.
Chapter II Electronic Document Administration Institutions and Their Functions
Article 4 The national inter-ministerial joint meeting system for the administration of electronic documents shall be established, and the administration of electronic documents nationwide shall be led by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and be organized and coordinated with by the General Office of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the State Archives Administration, the State Secrecy Administration, the StateCryptographyAdministration, the Standardization Administration of China and other relevant departments as the member entities. The main functions of the national inter-ministerial joint meeting for the administration of electronic documents are:
(1) taking charge of making overall planning for and organizing and coordinating in the administration of electronic documents nationwide;
(2) researching and developing the policies and guidelines for the administration of electronic documents;
(3) examining the regulations and rules on, important planning for and major project plans of the administration of electronic documents;
(4) organizing the drafting of the relevant standards; and
(5) researching and solving other major problems arising in the process of the administration of electronic documents nationwide.
Article 5 The routine work of the national inter-ministerial joint meeting for the administration of electronic documents shall be undertaken by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Article 6 The party committees and governments at or above the country level shall, in light of the actual circumstances, specify the electronic document administrative departments, and assume the organization and coordination as well as supervision and inspection of the administration of electronic documents in these regions.
Article 7 All relevant departments shall provide necessary guarantee measures for the administration of electronic documents.
Theinformation technology administrative departments at all levels shall incorporate the administration of electronic documents into the information technology development planning, and provide information technology guarantee for the administration of electronic documents. The development and reform, institutional staffingand other departments at all levels shall provide policy guarantee for the administration of electronic documents. The public finance departments at all levels shall provide fund guarantee for the administration of electronic documents.
Article 8 Electronic document formation entities shall make overall planning for the administration of electronic documents of their own entities, establish the administration system, clarify the administration functions, standardize the workflow, and implement the guarantee measures.
Secretarial and business departments of all entities shall take charge of the routine handling of electronic documents; archival departments shall take charge of the administration of the archived electronic documents; information technology departments shall take charge of providing information technology support for the administration of electronic documents; and confidentiality department shall take charge of the supervision and administration of the confidentiality of secret-related electronic documents.
Article 9 The national comprehensive archives at all levels shall take charge of the receipt and safekeeping of the electronic documentsworthy of permanent preservation formed by various entities within the scope of receipt by these archives, andmake them available to users in accordance with the law; and where conditions permit, they shall, in accordance with the requirements of the state for backup for disaster recovery, establish theelectronic documents backup centers or offsite backup databases at the same levels.
Chapter III Formation and Handling of Electronic Documents
Article 10 Electronic document formation entities shall, when establishing and improving the information system, organize the secretarial, business, archives, information technology, confidentiality and other departments to put forward the functional requirements for the administration of electronic documents.
Article 11 In the process of being formed and handled, electronic documents shall be in the forms of originals as prescribed by the laws and regulations of the state, and meet the following requirements:
(1) They can effectively reflect the contents specified and are available for retrieval and reference.
(2) Electronic documents and their metadata can be ensured intact from their formation, have reliable sources and have never been altered illegally.
(3) Form changes which occur in the process of information exchange, storage and display do not impact the authenticity and integrity of the contents of electronic documents. The original forms of secret-related electronic documents shall comply with the provisions of the confidentiality laws and regulations of the state.
Article 12 Electronic documents shall be in the document storage formats in compliance with the standards of the state so as to ensure that they can be read effectively on a long-term basis.
Article 13 Electronic document formation entities shall make clear provisions on the retention as well as security and confidentiality, among others, of the process drafts and relevant information formed by electronic documents.
Article 14 During the transmission and exchange of electronic documents, the transmission and exchange process shall be recorded in accordance with the relevant requirements.
Chapter IV Archiving and Handover of Electronic Documents
Article 15 Electronic document formation entities shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state, specify the scope of archiving and the preservation period of electronic documents, and archive the electronic documents worthy of preservation in a timely manner; and the archive departments of these entities shall take charge of the administration thereof.
Article 16 The archiving of electronic documents shall meet the following requirements:
(1) Electronic documents shall be archived in real time or on a regular basis after the completion of the handling thereof, and the archiving on a regular basis shall be completed prior to the end of June of the next year.
(2) The preservation period of the archived electronic documents shall be divided accurately.
(3) Electronic documents and their metadata shall be archived at the same time.
(4) When electronic documents are archived, the authenticity, integrity, and availability of such documents shall be authenticated and detected, and be confirmed by the relevant responsible persons.
(5) Electronic documents shall be archived in the standard storage formats specified by the state, and the electronic documents as state secrets shall be stored via special-purpose confidentiality storage media, and undergone the archiving formalities in accordance with the confidentiality provisions.
(6) Electronic documents worthy of permanent preservation or of other significant values shall be converted into paper documents or microfilm, and be archived at the same time.
Article 17 The archived electronic documents shall be classified and organized in accordance with the relevant administration requirements.
Article 18 The electronic documents that fall within the scope of acceptance by a national comprehensive archives shall be handed over to a national comprehensive archives at the same level within a prescribed time limit. Where an electronic document backup center has been formed, such documents shall be handed over according to the requirements of the electronic document backup center.
Chapter V Safekeeping and Utilization of Electronic Documents
Article 19 Electronic document formation entities and the national comprehensive archives at all levels shall be equipped with the facilities and equipment for the administration and utilization of electronic documents.
Article 20 The safekeeping of electronic documents shall meet the following requirements:
(1) The electronic document administration system and the information content security and confidentiality protection system shall be established in accordance with the national information security level protection standards and the administrative provisions on the graded protection of confidential information system, and the strict security and confidentiality administrative system shall be implemented.
(2) Thesafekeeping and readability of electronic documents shall be tested and inspected on a regular basis, and all problems found shall be handled in a timely manner.
(3) If there is any change in the software, hardware or storage medium for the operation of electronic documents, such documents shall be transferred or converted in a timely manner.
(4) The backup system shall be implemented for electronic documents.
(5) Appropriate safekeeping conditions shall be selected according to the requirements of the safekeeping environments of different media for electronic documents.
Article 21 The relevant information that reflects the safekeeping and utilization process of electronic documents shall be recorded and preserved.
Article 22 The construction of the infrastructures for the utilization of electronic documents shall be strengthened; the relevant system shall be established and improved; and effective measures shall be taken to promote the sharing of information resources, so as to ensure the convenient and efficient utilization of electronic documents within the scope of the prescribed time, regions, institutions and personnel.
Article 23 The utilization of the electronic documents that fall within the scope of public disclosure of information shall be governed by the relevant provisions of the state. The electronic documents that do not fall within the scope of public disclosure of information may be provided and utilized within prescribed scopes in accordance with the requirements of the laws and regulations of the state on archives, confidentiality, information security, intellectual property protection and other aspects.
Article 24 Authentic and reliable electronic documents shall be provided for users, and effective measures shall be taken to ensure that electronic documents are not damaged.
Article 25 The destruction of electronic documents shall perform the relevant approval formalities; and the destruction of confidential electronic documents shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the confidentiality laws and regulationsof the state.
Chapter VI Rewards and Punishments
Article 26 The departments in charge of the administration of electronic documents and electronic document formation entities shall commend or reward the entities or individuals that have made outstanding achievements in the administration of electronic documents.
Article 27 Under any of the following circumstances, the department in charge of the administration of electronic documents at or above the county level shall order the relevant party to make rectification within a prescribed time limit; and if the circumstances are serious, the relevant competent department shall take corresponding disciplinary actions against thedirectly responsible persons in charge and other directly liable persons in accordance with the relevant provisions:
(1) The administration of electronic documents fails to meet the requirements for authenticity, integrity, availability, security and confidentiality.
(2) Electronic documents fail to be handed over or received as required.
(3) Electronic documents fail to be provided as required.
(4) Electronic documents are damaged, lost, tampered with or forged.
(5) Electronic documents are provided, reproduced, published or destroyed without approval.
(6) Electronic documents are sold without approval.
(7) Losses to electronic documents are caused due to negligence of duties.
Under the circumstance of item (4), (5), (6) or (7) of the preceding paragraph, if a person is suspected of being criminally punishable, he or she shall be held criminally liable in accordance with the law.
Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions
Article 28 For the purpose of these Measures, “metadata” means the data describing the contents, structures, backgrounds and administration process of electronic documents.
Article 29 The administration of electronic documents of the army system shall be governed by reference to these Measures.
Article 30 The power to interpret these Measures shall remain with the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Article 31 These Measures shall come into force on the date of issuance.