Xi underscores cyber sovereignty, rejects internet hegemony

China has triggered fresh concerns about online censorship after the Chinese president Xi Jinping said countries should respect one another’s “cyber sovereignty” and different internet governance models.

Xi’s comments came at the opening of the World Internet Conference, an event China has organized over the past two years in what analysts say is an attempt to win global support for its vision of a controlled internet space filled with “positive energy”.

Internet infrastructure, including cloud computing and big data, is the cornerstone of smart technologies, said Zhang.

Although China has amassed the world’s largest Internet population since the Internet arrived in 1994, it remains a latecomer, and there is still much to fully tap the potential of the Internet.

But with USA democracy watchdog Freedom House reporting that China had the most restrictive Internet policies of 65 countries studied, below Cuba, Iran and Syria, human rights campaigners have called for a total boycott of the conference.

Mr Xi was speaking at a closely watched conference that reflects the rise of a massive homegrown internet industry as well as Beijing’s aspiration of reaching a global audience with its message.

China attached great importance to internet development, Xi said. Posts are deleted and search terms are blocked and foreign sites such as Facebook and Google have withdrawn or been barred from operating.

USA companies and government officials have long complained to cyber-attacks originating out of China, an accusation officials in Beijing have denied, saying they too have been the targets of hacking.

While professing support for an exchange of ideas on the Internet, Xi also emphasised the need for order.

“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 the group’s East Asia research director, Roseann Rife, in a statement.

The conference was attended by a handful of high-profile figures from nations that have been criticised for their records on freedom of speech, including Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev.

The rules, Lu said, were meant to protect national prerogatives, as well as the “legal rights and interests of global enterprises in China”. “We can not just have the security of one or some countries while leaving the rest insecure; still less should one seek the so-called absolute security for oneself at the expense of the security of others”, he said.

The president is also reported to have defended his nation’s strict control of websites, telling the audience in China on Wednesday that it was actually necessary to keep public order.

“Indeed, we do not welcome those that make money off China, occupy China’s market, even as they slander China’s people”, Lu Wei, the head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said last week.