China's Bankruptcy Law in the Digital Era: Challenges and Responses

The digital era has posed significant challenges to the traditional institutional framework of China's bankruptcy law. In response to digital transformation, bankruptcy law must embrace adaptive adjustments through multidimensional coordination. In respect of the ownership and valuation of data assets, bankruptcy law should, with the clarification of data ownership as the cornerstone, establish a dynamic valuation framework to address the complexities of data asset valuation. From the technological perspective, to address the anonymity inherent in virtual currencies, transnational cooperation mechanisms should be instituted to recover unlawfully transferred assets. We should also promote the compliant application of technologies such as blockchain, build a secure and trustworthy bankruptcy estate administration system, and standardize procedural designs to enhance the efficiency and fairness of bankruptcy law in the digital era. While in terms of the bankruptcy of special entities such as internet platform enterprises and big data service providers, tailored rules must be devised. Mechanisms prioritizing user rights protection and jurisdictional clarification should be implemented to resolve conflicts between user interest safeguards and territorial jurisdiction. Through tiered design of data assets and specialized data review procedures, the lawful and orderly transfer of data during bankruptcy proceedings can be ensured, with adequate protections for data security and privacy rights. In the digital era, only through innovative rules to address the uncertainties of technological change and institutional reforms to safeguard the sound development of the digital economy can bankruptcy law truly achieve functional reconstruction and value reconfiguration in the digital era. This study examines the challenges posed by the digital era to bankruptcy law and corresponding responses across three dimensions: data assets, technological transformation, and special entities. It highlights core issues such as ambiguous ownership, valuation difficulties, technological and ethical risks, and the complexities in governing platform enterprises, striving for comprehensive coverage of the intricate issues confronting bankruptcy law in the digital era. It is hoped that this research will stimulate broader academic discourse on how bankruptcy legal systems can adapt to the digital transformations, thereby advancing bankruptcy law from passive adaptation to proactive leadership in this historic transition.