The government should accelerate expanding the depth and breadth of data applications in exploring innovative digital urban management while taking the lead to formulate relevant policies and rules to create good data application ecology, said deputies to the National People's Congress.

Several cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, have put forward concepts of digital urban management to help promote the modernization of governance capabilities. There have also been several attempts in digital city operation and the establishment in management centers, internet courts, and smart communities in recent years.

But data application in the fields of transportation, education, medical care, and city safety are usually presented as a single system where application is fragmented, said Shao Zhiqing, a deputy to the NPC, on the sidelines of the annual session of the national legislature.

"To expand both depth and breadth means that we need to integrate more contents into a unified platform and integrate the data for better use," said Shao, who is also the vice-chairman of the Shanghai Committee of China Zhi Gong Party.

Other NPC deputies also suggested the introduction of rules and restrictions to license and regulate the application of related digital technologies in social scenarios.

Regarding data flow across borders, NPC deputy Zhang Zhao'an said that relevant laws, regulations and technical specifications should be improved to implement classification of important data and establish a security assessment system.

"A similar security mechanism can be replicated for domestic data flow," said Zhang, who is also vice-chairman of the Shanghai Committee of China National Democratic Construction Association and a researcher with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.