Chinese President Xi Jinping calls for ‘cyber sovereignty’

Hanging over Xi’s 25-minute address was the trial of Pu Zhiqiang, an internet-savvy civil rights lawyer who is facing eight years in prison for seven posts he made on Weibo, China’s Twitter, criticising the Communist party.

Xi’s government has even tightened controls since he came to power in 2013, operating an extensive Internet monitoring and censorship program dubbed overseas as the “Great Firewall”. In his speech, Xi emphasized the primacy of internet sovereignty (now being translated by Chinese media as “cyber sovereignty”, which gives the term a broader connotation). “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”.

The president stressed: “We should respect other countries’ rights to peaceful involvement in global cyberspace governance, including their choices of internet development, regulation and public policies”.

‘As in the real world, freedom and order are both necessary in cyberspace, ‘ Xi told the opening of the so-called world internet conference, taking place over three days in Wuzhen, a town in eastern China. “Cyberspace should not be a battlefield for countries to wrestle with one another”, he said.

The President said that as the innovation in cyberspace had resulted in commercial, economic, cultural, and social opportunities for users, Pakistan being a progressive nation fully endorsed the global vision of seamless connectivity across the world.

William Nee, a China researcher at Amnesty International, said the group feared that companies would compromise free-speech principles to gain access to China’s market. China was ranked last among 65 countries in a recent Freedom House internet freedom survey behind Iran, Cuba and Myanmar. The event is sponsored by China and according to the BBC, Reporters Without Borders has urged firms and countries to stay away from the event, as attendance will signal acceptance of China’s strict censorship laws. “Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Thompson Reuters CEO James Clifton Smith reportedly are among the thousands of foreign guests attending”, The Hill notes. The push failed, by China hasn’t let go of its dream of winning global legitimacy for the concept of cyber sovereignty – not by a long shot.

“No country should pursue cyber hegemony, interfere in other countries’ internal affairs or engage in, connive at, or support cyber activities that undermine other counties’ national security”, Xi said. He particularly targeted the United States for monopolizing cyber governance while also using sophisticated technologies to conduct cyber espionage. “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.

Search engine Baidu’s booth features a billboard explaining how its online translation service is helping communication between Eurasian countries as they strengthen regional infrastructure under the Belt and Road Initiative being led by China. For example, Valeriy M. Matsel, consul-general of the Republic of Belarus in Shanghai, is seeking more investment and cooperation from Chinese companies.