Summary:
Avec l’évolution de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) en Asie-Pacifique, il est essentiel de comprendre le cadre réglementaire en mutation. La série APAC AI Watch analyse les développements juridiques, aidant les entreprises à anticiper les défis de conformité et à saisir les opportunités. En Chine, des mesures strictes sur l’étiquetage du contenu généré par l’IA ont été introduites, tandis qu’Hong Kong et Macao adoptent des approches éthiques et pragmatiques, respectivement, face à ce paysage en constante évolution.
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As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries, understanding the evolving regulatory landscape is more critical than ever. Our new APAC AI Watch series offers in-depth analysis of key legal developments across Asia-Pacific, helping businesses anticipate compliance challenges and seize emerging opportunities. Each article will break down legislative updates, policy trends, and enforcement actions across the region, providing practical guidance on how businesses can navigate evolving AI regulations, mitigate risks, and refine their strategies. Follow our series for the latest insights and expert analysis.
## Chapter 1 Mainland China
### China Strengthens Labeling Requirements on AI-Generated Content
China’s AI sector has entered a transformative phase since 2024, driven by breakthroughs in generative AI and multimodal large language models (LLMs). A representative example at the forefront is Deepsea, a pioneering start-up based in Hangzhou, which has significantly redefined global perceptions of China’s AI capabilities. At the same time, the capital expenditure from tech giants on AI investments continue to surge.
AI is becoming an increasingly significant battleground in international competition. Against this backdrop, China is accelerating its AI legislation and trying to strike a balance between promoting innovation and the need to safeguard the necessary negative impacts of AI technology.
### Regulatory Frameworks on AI
Unlike the EU’s approach of formulating a unified Artificial Intelligence Act, China has opted for a “small incision” approach to implement experimental regulation.
Generally, AI technology and services are regulated within the framework of existing laws and regulations, such as the Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law, and Personal Information Protection Law, which address high-level issues relating to data, privacy, cyber security, etc. Existing regulations specifically governing AI mainly focus on generative AI.
To mitigate risks amid rapid innovation, China has introduced stringent rules since 2022, including:
– On 25 November 2022, China promulgated the Administrative Provisions on Deep Synthesis of Internet-based Information Services (Deep Synthesis Provisions). Deep synthesis service providers within China are required to strengthen the management of deep synthesis content and examine the data input by users and synthesis results. For the contents generated or edited by the deep synthesis services, providers must implement technical measures to add identifying marks and maintain logs for record-keeping.
– On 10 July 2023, China promulgated the Provisional Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services (Generative AI Measures), marking the country’s first regulations targeting generative AI. These measures require generative AI service providers to meet obligations related to algorithm training, content management, and regulatory mechanisms.
The core of the Generative AI Measures is to strength the responsibilities of generative AI service providers by implementing a classified and graded regulatory mechanism. This mechanism imposes different levels of compliance obligations on service providers based on the sectors they belong to and whether they have the attributes of public opinion or the ability to mobilize society (which is not clearly defined).
The Generative AI Measures also require service providers to rectify algorithms and take timely actions, such as stopping generation, transmission, and elimination to manage illegal content. Providers are also required to mark pictures, videos and other generated content in accordance with the Deep Synthesis Provisions.
Furthermore, the measures also emphasize the importance of using lawful data sources and ensuring non-infringement of personal information rights and intellectual property rights for data processing activities. Service providers are also required to improve the quality, as well as enhance the authenticity, accuracy, objectivity, and diversity of training data.
### Latest developments on Labeling AI-Generated Content
On 7 March 2025, China published the Promulgation of the Measures for Labeling AI-Generated or Composed Content (Labeling Measures), which take effect on 1 September 2025. The measures aim to enhance the transparency and traceability of AI-generated content and are considered a refinement of the labeling requirements in the Deep Synthesis Provisions and the Generative AI Measures mentioned above.
The Labeling Measures standardize the requirements for generative and synthetic service providers, requiring the addition of both explicit and implicit labels (where applicable) to generated synthetic content, including text, images, audio, video, and virtual scenes:
– Explicit labels – these must be prominently displayed in user-perceptible formats, such as by way of text prompts, watermarks, or audio cues, at specified positions depending on the content type.
– Implicit labels – these are technical markers, such as metadata or digital watermarks, embedded in file headers to record source and authorship information.
The Labeling Measures also provide specific guidelines for adding tags to different types of content.
Under the Labeling Measures, where an APP service provider offers such services, the APP distribution platform must verify the labeling materials for its generated or composed content. Additionally, the service providers are required to specify the methods, styles and other specifications for labeling generated or composed content in the user service agreements, and remind users to carefully read and understand the relevant labeling management requirements.
### Our recommendations
Clients offering AI services within China should closely monitor the evolving regulatory landscape. Its dynamic regulatory framework, which emphasizes categorized and graded supervision, multi-stakeholder accountability, and ongoing standardization efforts (e.g., plans to establish over 50 AI-related standards by 2026), demands proactive adaptation. As China continues to refine its AI governance paradigm, we will closely track legislative developments.
## Chapter 2 Hong Kong SAR
### PCPD’s Ethical AI Guidance and AI Model Framework
Currently, Hong Kong does not have an overarching legislation governing AI. Instead, it relies on a combination of existing laws and sector-specific guidelines to address AI-related risks and challenges.
In 2021, the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) established itself as a key authority on AI governance by publishing the Guidance on the Ethical Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (Ethical AI Guidance). This guidance extends beyond personal data protection, offering a broad framework to help organizations understand and comply with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap.486) (PDPO) when developing or employing AI. This was essential to the development of Hong Kong, not only as a data hub, but also as a world-class smart city driving technological innovation.
The Ethical AI Guidance advocates three data stewardship values: being respectful, beneficial and fair. It also outlines seven ethical principles: accountability, human oversight, transparency and interpretability, data privacy, fairness, beneficial AI, and reliability, robustness and security. It also provides practical guidance for organizations managing AI systems to uphold these values and principles.
To support the Global AI Governance Initiative released in mainland China, the PCPD further introduced the Artificial Intelligence: Model Personal Data Protection Framework (AI Model Framework) in June 2024. This framework reiterates and expands on the main principles set out in the Ethical AI Guidance, and offers best practice recommendations for organizations procuring, implementing and using AI systems that involve the use of personal data, to align with the Data Protection Principles (DPPs) of the PDPO.
Under both the Ethical AI Guidance and the AI Model Framework, organizations are advised to adopt a risk-based approach, meaning they should adopt measures proportional to the risks that an AI system may pose in a given context. The PCPD has set out the following four key aspects for organizations to consider:
1. Developing internal AI governance strategies
2. Conducting thorough risk assessments with continuous human oversight
3. Customizing AI models and managing AI systems adequately
4. Communicating and engaging with stakeholders effectively and regularly
### Digital Policy Office’s Ethical AI Framework
Following the steps of the PCPD, the Digital Policy Office led by the Commissioner for Digital Policy, published the Ethical Artificial Intelligence Framework (Ethical AI Framework) in July 2024. This government branch is responsible for the policy and regulation of information and technology. The framework is designed to assist government departments and bureaus in planning, designing and implementing AI and big data analytics in IT projects and services. It consists of guiding principles, leading practices and an assessment template to assess the implications of AI applications. The framework echoes the PCPD’s 2021 Ethical AI Guidance in its guiding moral principles.
### Update to the copyright regime
Given the copyright issues arising from the technological development of AI, especially generative AI, Hong Kong is seeking to update its copyright regime to keep pace with these advancements. After a two-month public consultation conducted by the Hong Kong government from July to September 2024, the Legislative Council (LegCo) issued a briefing paper in February 2025 summarizing the consultation responses. These responses addressed issues such as copyright protection and copyright infringement liability for AI-generated works.
Under the Copyright Ordinance (Cap.528) (CO), copyright protection is already granted to works generated by generative AI. However, revisions to the CO are being proposed to introduce copyright infringement exceptions for computational data analysis and processing. These exceptions cover conventional text and data mining and the training of AI models, aiming to foster the growth of the AI industry.
While the proposed revisions to the CO are now under discussion by the LegCo panel on Commerce, Industry, Innovation and Technology, the exact timeline of this legislative update remains unclear.
## Chapter 3 Macau SAR
Similar to Hong Kong, Macau does not have a specific AI regulatory framework. In May 2024, the Director of Post and Telecommunications Services, Debbie Lau, stated that AI implementation in Macau was still “at the early stages.” The Macau government has adopted a “wait and see” approach, choosing to observe AI regulatory frameworks in other jurisdictions, such as the AI Act currently in force in the European Union, before it uses them as a reference.
AI has not played as significant a role in Macau compared with the European Union, mainland China or Hong Kong. Neither has AI been a considerable factor in driving economic growth in Macau, a city that mainly relies on hospitality and tourism with an emphasis on customized human service, which is currently impossible to be completely replaced by AI. Despite the underdeveloped AI landscape, Macau has embarked on a digital transformation of its tourism-based economy. In April 2024, the tourism authorities launched the first “AI Macau Smart Tourism Service” which integrates AI and big data. Additionally, Macau has set the advancement of tech industries, including AI, as part of its development priorities for the next five years.