No Double Standards in Cyber Security: Xi

The government has only increased restrictions since Xi took power three years ago, passing a security law establishing “cybersovereignty”, making retweets of rumors a crime and advancing regulations that would let companies in key sectors only use technology deemed “safe and controllable”.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony. Xi however said that there is a need for a balance between “order” and freedom of expression.

“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.

Reporters Without Borders has been urging foreign companies and governments to stay away from the conference because their attendance, it says, makes them complicit in a censorship regime in which nearly 40 journalists are now in prison for work posted online.

And one important theme, even if it’s not stated explicitly, is how governments can keep some level of control over the Internet.

Zhan adds that Xi is focused far more on the Internet and less on traditional media than any of his predecessors.

Zhao Houlin, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, an information and communication technologies agency under the United Nations, said China has much to offer in solving Internet security issues with the rest of the world.

“We should respect Internet users’ rights to exchange their ideas and express their minds, and we should also build a good order in cyberspace in accordance with law as it will help protect the legitimate rights and interests of all Internet users”, Xi said.

China’s faith that the Internet should be subject to national laws has been justified by the fact that the country, home to 670 million Internet users, is transforming the Internet landscape with its success story.

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. Rights groups say any foreign tech firms involved in the conference are tacitly complicit in China’s online censorship.

While Facebook and Twitter, among others, are blocked in China, that was not the case in Wuzhen, where attendees enjoyed unfettered access to Web sites.

Wang highlighted the fact that the 13 root name servers – which are the first step in translating readable host names into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses – were under USA control, which effectively made the interests of China and other countries’ vulnerable.

Those efforts are aimed at maintaining stability, a lack of which the Communist Party sees as a direct threat to its rule.