China has declared that stealing digital collectibles such as NFTs is punishable by criminal theft.

The Chinese government issued a statement on November 10 announcing that anyone who steals digital tokens such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be prosecuted for theft.

It outlines three perspectives on the type of crime that theft of digital assets falls under, the first two classifying it as data or digital assets. However, the statement emphasizes a third perspective that regards digital collections as information and virtual property, which falls under the umbrella of “collective destruction”.

The statement explained that theft of a digital collection involves hacking into the system in which it is held, thus illegally obtaining data from a computer information system and committing the crime of theft.

“Theft of Digital Collections is the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system information and violates protection laws and interests.”

He elaborates on this topic, naming digital collections “network virtual property” and in the context of criminal law “collections must be recognized as property.”

“Since property is a property crime, digital collections can be a property crime. If the digital collection is stolen by breaking into the system or through other technical means, the act also violates the property law.”

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NFTs are specifically mentioned, noting that digital stocks are derived from the “external” concept of NFTs and use blockchain technology to “definite assets” with “unique, irrevocable, blockable and permanent storage properties.”

The statement said that although China has not opened a “secondary flow market” for digital collections, “consumers can rely on commercial platforms to complete purchases, collections, transfers, destruction and other operations with the ability to independently hold, use and dispose of.”

Despite an official ban in China from 2021 on crypto-related activities and transactions other than simply owning them, there has been a lot of buzz around NFTs recently.

Local Chinese media reported on October 25 that Alibaba-owned peer-to-peer marketplace Xianyu removed censoring of keywords related to “invincible tokens” and “digital asset” in its search.

Before that, on October 6, China Daily, a Chinese government newspaper published in English, announced that it wanted to create its own NFT platform and would pay 2.813 million Chinese yuan ($390,000) to a third party to design it. The platform is up to the standards.

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