China
The Beijing Municipal Government released the Beijing Digital Economy Development Plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period on 9 September. The document was dated 25 August and took effect on the day of publication. It sets a goal of making Beijing a global benchmark city for the digital economy by 2030 and identifies a digital-economy share exceeding 50 per cent of regional gross domestic product as an indicative target. Other targets include average annual growth of about 8 per cent in digital-economy value added, reducing the power usage effectiveness of existing data centres to below 1.35, raising the number of tokens generated per kilowatt-hour from 5 million in 2025 to 20 million, and extending “dual-smart” city applications across all areas within Beijing’s Sixth Ring Road.
The plan covers foundation models, AI for science, world models, quantum computing, brain–computer interfaces and advanced chips. It calls for a domestic advanced-computing validation platform and the capacity to develop computing clusters containing 100,000 accelerators. Its industry and deployment measures include model-as-a-service platforms, token production, metering, pricing and settlement systems, commercial deployment of embodied AI, and the use of more than 100,000 robots across advanced manufacturing, city administration and everyday services. The plan also connects data governance, public services and energy efficiency, with measures on data-property registration, authorised operation of public data, high-quality sectoral datasets and wider AI use in government services, health care, education and urban management.
Australia
The Australian Government released draft Digital Duty of Care legislation for targeted consultation on 8 September. Its “My Feed, My Way” measure would require social media platforms to notify new and existing users and let them choose whether their default feeds contain algorithmically recommended material. Users who opt out of personalised recommendations would instead see content from the friends and creators they have chosen to follow.
The draft would place responsibility for providing a safe online environment on digital service providers. Online games, apps and AI chatbots would be required to protect users under 18 from features with addictive or other harmful behavioural effects and from material that promotes eating disorders, hostility towards women, pornography, crime or life-endangering stunts. The draft would also give the eSafety Commissioner power to issue removal notices for nudify apps and websites, streamline the child cyberbullying and adult cyber-abuse schemes, and require platforms to document and keep testing their risk-control measures. The government said non-compliance with the duty of care could attract penalties of up to A$109.2 million. The proposal remains at the targeted-consultation stage, with legislation intended to be introduced to Parliament during 2026.
United States
On 8 September, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction restricting the Internal Revenue Service from using a procedure established in 2025 to disclose taxpayer address information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The ruling concerns interim relief rather than a final judgment on the merits. The three-judge panel held that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits and that the remaining conditions for preliminary relief were satisfied.
The court’s opinion records that ICE had sought the last known addresses of as many as 1.28 million people. Before the lower court halted the procedure, the IRS had disclosed 47,289 records, more than 90 per cent of them produced through taxpayer-identification-number matching. The panel held that the procedure did not ensure each request met statutory requirements concerning the taxpayer’s name and address, the relevant tax period, legal authority, specific reason for disclosure and the personnel authorised to receive the information. It therefore left in place the lower court’s order requiring disclosures to comply strictly with those statutory conditions and requiring notice to the court before the IRS responds to future related requests. The Department of Homeland Security told Reuters that it disagreed with the decision and would continue to use lawful means to locate and remove people subject to final removal orders.
Editorial framework: This briefing uses Sustenesis as an editorial framework for selecting facts, organising relationships and structuring information, with attention to differences and constraints in rules, responsibilities, resources, risks and social relations. Sustenesis functions here as a method of organisation rather than a position or commentary; the body remains limited to verifiable facts.
Sources
Beijing Municipal Government, “Notice of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government on issuing the Beijing Digital Economy Development Plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period”
https://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengcefagui/202609/t20260909_4856719.html
Beijing Municipal Government, “Beijing Digital Economy Development Plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period”
https://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengcefagui/202609/W020260909551985155523.pdf
Prime Minister of Australia, “My Feed, My Way”
https://www.pm.gov.au/media/my-feed-my-way
The Guardian, “Labor wants Australians to be able to opt out of online algorithms. How will it change your feed?”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/09/labor-australians-opt-out-online-algorithms-how-change-feed
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Center for Taxpayer Rights, et al. v. Internal Revenue Service, et al.
https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/byvraokegpe/09082026irs.pdf
Reuters, “IRS under Trump unlawfully shared taxpayer info with immigration authorities, court rules”
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/irs-under-trump-unlawfully-shared-taxpayer-info-with-immigration-authorities-2026-09-08/
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