“No country should pursue cyber hegemony, interfere in other countries’ internal affairs or engage in, connive at or support cyber activities that undermine other countries’ national security”, the president added.
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During his speech, China’s Xi said that countries have the right to choose how to develop and regulate their internet.
Organizers said about 2,000 people were due to attend the conference, including representatives of Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Corp, IMB, Alibaba Group Holding (Russian Federation里巴巴), Tencent Holdings (騰訊) and Baidu (百度), as well as Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain and officials from Russian Federation and Kazakhstan.
Xi also urged countries to respect each other’s “path of internet development and management”. The irony? Conference goers can use some sites that are inaccessible to Chinese residents, like Twitter and Facebook, as the conference has its own hashtag. Cyberspace, he said, should not be turned into a battleground for nations to wrestle one another, and still less a hotbed for crimes.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a global treaty on fighting Internet terrorism, amid the growing threat on cyberspace from Middle Eastern terror groups.
Xi called for a balance between order and freedom, echoing previous administration claims that the former leads to broader Internet freedoms.
Security experts claim that China is the biggest source of hacking attacks aimed at governments and companies.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for promoting innovation-driven development by grasping opportunities in the Internet era on Wednesday.
Two days before Xi took to the podium, Pu Zhiqiang, one of China’s most celebrated human rights lawyers, stood trial over just seven microblog posts critical of the ruling Communist Party that could earn him up to eight years behind bars.
“Freedom is what order is meant for, and order is the guarantee of freedom”. Last year, American prosecutors charged five Chinese military officers with stealing secrets from U.S. companies. “As long as they abide by China’s laws, we warmly welcome enterprises and business-starters from all countries to invest and do business in China, ” he said. Prior to the previous World Internet Conference, China blocked access to a major content delivery network, and also made a clumsy attempt to force delegates to sign up to China’s demand for national cyber sovereignity, by pushing a joint statement under delegates hotel doors.
“Under the guise of sovereignty and security, the Chinese authorities are trying to rewrite the rules of the internet so censorship and surveillance become the norm everywhere”, said Roseann Rife, East Asia Research Director at Amnesty International.
At the first such Internet conference gathering past year, efforts to issue a declaration broke down after some from the global technology community balked at language calling on them to “respect Internet sovereignty of all countries” and “widely spread positive energy”.
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Xi also said China fully supported the setting up of an global treaty on cyber-counterterrorism and was opposed to the cyber arms race, which has seen nations use the internet to carry out espionage and disrupt other states’ communications.
