China’s President Xi Jinping laid out his vision for the Internet on Wednesday, calling for a new status quo where Internet sovereignty rests in the hands of nations controlling the flow of information. “While respecting internet users’ rights to exchange ideas and express their views, efforts should be made to build a sound cyberspace order under the law so as to protect the legitimate rights and interests of all internet users”, he said. Xi did not speak at last year’s event.
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United States companies and government officials have long complained about cyber-attacks originating from China, an accusation the leadership denies, saying their own nation has been targeted by hackers.
Xi said that a secure, stable and prosperous cyberspace was crucial for all countries, especially with the threats of wars, terrorism and other crimes. In September, US President Barack Obama said he and Xi had agreed that neither government would knowingly support cyber theft of corporate secrets to support domestic businesses.
Prime ministers Dmitry Medvedev of Russian Federation and Karim Massimov of Kazakhstan, whose nations are members of the regional Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, also were there.
Speaking at the start of a major Beijing-organised conference on the internet, Xi said it was crucial his nation’s 670 million internet users enjoyed online “freedom”, despite widespread censorship and the blocking of many foreign internet services including Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and Instagram. “It’s increasingly become a key component of China’s political governing mechanism”. And that likely won’t change anytime soon, based on this year’s World Internet Conference. In May, he designated China’s Internet elites as a key focus for the ruling party’s outreach, elevating them to a level of strategic importance on par with ethnic minority leaders and Taiwan’s political parties.
“As long as you obey the Chinese law, we warmly welcome enterprises and entrepreneurs from every other country to invest in China”, Xi said.
Apart from competition, companies should cooperate with each other.
Mr Xi also reiterated a call for states to work jointly on internet security.
China has come under criticism for its strong controls on the use of the internet in the country as well as for banning several social media sites and news portals.
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“We should respect the right of individual countries to independently choose their own path of cyber development and model of cyber regulation and participate in global cyberspace governance on an equal footing”, he said.
