Chinese Government Threatens Prison Sentence For Digital Collection And NFT Thieves

JAKARTA - The Chinese government, on November 10, released a statement stating that anyone stealing digital collections, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), would be subject to theft.

The statement outlines three views on the type of crime that includes the theft of digital collections. Two of them classify it as data or digital property. However, the statement emphasizes that a third view, which views digital collections as data and virtual property, will be included in the "co-offending" umbrella.

The statement explained that stealing digital collections including intrusion into the system where the collection was stored, thus also committing the crime of obtaining data on computer information systems illegally and theft.

"The theft of digital collections violates protection laws and interests from crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data." The statement details this topic, naming the digital collection as a "virtual network property" and emphasizing that in the context of criminal law, "collection should be recognized as property."

"Because property is an object of property crime, digital collection can clearly become the object of property crime. If digital collections are stolen by hacking systems or other technical methods, these actions also damage property law," the statement said.

The NFT is also specifically mentioned that digital collections come from the NFT concept "outseas" and use blockchain technology to "set specific assets" with "unique storage characteristics, non-copyable, preventing vandalism, and permanent."

The statement said that, although China has banned almost all crypto-related activities since 2021, there has been a recent furore surrounding NFT.

Local media Vhina reported on October 25 that Alibaba's peer-to-peer marketplace, Xianyu, removed sensors from keywords related to "non-fungible tokens" and "digital assets" in its search.

Earlier, on October 6, China Daily, the Chinese government-owned English newspaper announced that it wanted to create their own NFT platform and would provide 2.813 million Chinese yuan (IDR 6.1 billion) to third-party contractors to design platforms according to specifications.