Legal Framework for the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Use and Cybersecurity Threats (China’s Example)

The unprecedented growth of the market for unmanned aerial vehicles and their use reveals new, increasingly tangible problems concerning the violation of aviation, public and national security, which in turn requires states to provide more comprehensive legal instruments for regulating this area. In order to strengthen supervision over the flight safety of unmanned aerial vehicles in 2023, the State Council and the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China announced the entry into force on January 1, 2024 of the «Interim Regulations on the Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight», which, on the one hand, are designed to effectively resolve and prevent risks associated with the use of drones, and on the other hand, promote the sustainable and healthy development of related industries. These rules became the first specialized administrative regulations governing the flights of unmanned aerial vehicles and related activities, which indicates that the PRC has entered a stage of already standard-based development in this area. This will certainly have an impact on the development of the entire drone industry in China and on cooperation in this field at the international level.