China’s president defends Internet restrictions

Wu Xiaoqiu, head of the Finance and Securities Institute of Renmin University of China, says Internet finance is now playing a complementary role in the finance sector, helping the country’s traditional financial services transformed to an inclusive mode.

There is no “absolute” freedom in either the physical world or cyberspace.

Meanwhile, President Xi stressed that China was committed to developing the internet for commercial purposes, emphasizing the potential of big data and online business.

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.

Yesterday, Mr Xi said cyberspace needs freedom and order, adding that “freedom is the goal for order, and order guarantees freedom”.

Yet while authorities typically couch their Internet controls in the language of national security, critics call the concept a thinly-veiled excuse for stifling dissent.

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. Last year, the event was used as a platform for Beijing to map out a vision for governance and control of the Internet. On Monday, Pu Zhiqiang, a rights lawyer who defended dissidents, was tried on charges of “provoking trouble” and “inciting ethic hatred” in seven social-media postings critical of party policies toward the Uighur minority in the western Xinjiang region. According to the Cyberspace Administration of China, 30-B pieces of information are created daily. A broad slate of cybersecurity laws the country passed earlier this spring require all technologies – including those belonging to foreign firms – to be “secure and controllable”.

“What [Xi] really meant by that, is that there should be tough restrictions on the ability for citizens of each countries to express themselves”, says Maya Wang, an expert with rights group Human Rights Watch.

The three-day conference in the small eastern town of Wuzhen 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.

Joining officials at the conference were executives from Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Facebook and LinkedIn.

At last year’s Wuzhen conference, organizers tried unsuccessfully to persuade global Internet companies to endorse a call for the world community to “respect Internet sovereignty” and “spread positive energy”.