Ruiqing Long

Personal Information Protection & PIPL Compliance

Ruiqing Long advises individuals, employees and small and medium-sized enterprises in Beijing on personal information protection, privacy compliance and related dispute resolution under China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL).

Based in Beijing's Chaoyang District, Mr. Long practices at Beijing Zhong Lun Law Firm, where he focuses on the practical side of data privacy: helping organizations handle personal information lawfully, and helping individuals enforce their rights when that handling goes wrong. His approach to privacy work is shaped by an unusual career path — formal legal training at Peking University, followed by years inside the Beijing judicial system in several distinct roles, and then admission to the bar in 2023. That background gives him a working familiarity with how investigations, evidence and enforcement actually operate, which he applies to every compliance review and every dispute he takes on.

Professional Background

Mr. Long is a native of Beijing. He earned his Bachelor of Laws degree from Peking University and has since completed professional training programs at Yangzhou University, Beijing Jiaotong University and Tsinghua University. He is also a nationally certified Level II psychological counselor, a qualification that informs the way he handles emotionally charged disputes and the way he communicates with clients under stress.

Before entering private practice, Mr. Long worked for years within the Beijing judicial system in a succession of roles: police officer, discipline inspection officer, journalist, and community corrections officer. Each role contributed something distinct to his current practice. Policing taught him how investigations are conducted and how evidence is collected, preserved and tested. Discipline inspection work gave him first-hand exposure to internal oversight and regulatory review procedures. Journalism trained him to verify facts, read documents critically and explain complex matters in plain language. Community corrections work — supervising offenders serving non-custodial sentences — brought him face to face with the human consequences of legal decisions and the importance of clear, constructive guidance.

He is frequently invited to appear as a guest expert on televised legal education programs, where he discusses everyday legal questions for a general audience. He became a full-time lawyer in 2023 and practices from Beijing Zhong Lun Law Firm in the Chaoyang District.

Practice Area

Mr. Long's practice centers on the Personal Information Protection Law and the wider data protection framework — including the Data Security Law, the Cybersecurity Law and the privacy provisions of the Civil Code — with a particular focus on matters where rights collide and disputes arise.

For organizations, his work involves reviewing how personal information is collected, used and stored; identifying the lawful basis for each processing activity; drafting privacy notices, consent mechanisms and internal data policies; and advising on the special rules that apply to sensitive personal information, biometric data, workplace monitoring and cross-border transfers. For individuals, he assists with data subject rights — access, correction, deletion and portability — and with complaints, mediation and litigation where personal information has been misused or improperly disclosed.

His journalism background is directly relevant here: the PIPL recognizes news reporting and public-opinion supervision as lawful grounds for processing in appropriate circumstances, and Mr. Long understands the boundary between legitimate reporting and unlawful intrusion from both sides of that line. His psychological counseling training, meanwhile, is valuable in cases involving reputational harm and emotional distress, where the legal remedy is only part of what the client needs.

• PIPL compliance reviews and processing-activity mapping
• Privacy policies, notices and consent mechanisms
• Data breach response and regulatory liaison
• Data subject rights requests, complaints and litigation

Approach to Practice

Mr. Long runs engagements with the discipline of someone who has worked inside the institutions that investigate and adjudicate. Before substantive work begins, he agrees a written scope of work, an evidence checklist and a timeline, and he verifies facts himself rather than accepting them at face value — a habit carried over from his years as a police officer and journalist.

• Written scope and evidence checklist agreed before substantive work
• Document control with verified facts and plain-language summaries
• Statutory deadlines tracked, including response windows for data subject requests
• Complaint, mediation and litigation options evaluated in parallel

Local Practice in Beijing

Mr. Long practices in Beijing, where the central regulators responsible for personal information protection — including the Cyberspace Administration of China — are headquartered, and where the Beijing Internet Court has built a substantial body of decisions on privacy and data disputes. His office is in Chaoyang District, home to the headquarters of many internet platforms, technology companies and financial institutions, and therefore to a steady stream of data-related disputes before the district's courts.

As a Beijing native who spent years inside the city's judicial system, Mr. Long knows local procedure and enforcement practice from the inside. He advises clients not only on what the law says but on how it is actually applied in Beijing — the expectations of local regulators, the practical realities of the district courts, and the way complaints are actually processed. For companies, this means compliance advice that anticipates how a regulator or court in Beijing is likely to read a given privacy notice or consent form. For individuals, it means realistic advice about what can be achieved through complaints, mediation and litigation, with each step explained clearly along the way.

Professional Standards

"Loyal to the facts, loyal to the law, loyal to the client."

This is the standard Mr. Long holds himself to in every matter. Loyalty to the facts means verifying information, preserving evidence properly and never presenting speculation as proof. Loyalty to the law means giving honest advice even when it is not what the client hopes to hear. Loyalty to the client means confidentiality, diligence and the pursuit of the client's lawful interests without shortcuts.

He maintains strict client confidentiality, screens for conflicts of interest before accepting instructions, and keeps clients informed in plain language at every stage. He does not promise outcomes; he promises preparation, honesty and persistence. His training as a psychological counselor reinforces a measured, respectful style even in the most confrontational disputes, and his experience explaining law to television audiences has made him an effective communicator before courts, regulators and clients alike.