Xi presses for cyber `freedom, order’

“We should use moral teachings in guiding the use of the Internet”, he added, adding that China’s online presence should strive for a more positive and “uplifting” image.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called on all nations to respect each other’s cyber sovereignty and said there should be no Internet hegemony. 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.

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

During his speech, China’s Xi said that countries have the right to choose how to develop and regulate their internet. China attached great importance to internet development, Xi said.

“The right for countries to participate in global cyberspace governance as equals should be respected by all”. “This is an all-out assault on Internet freedoms”, said Roseann Rife, the East Asia research director at Amnesty International.

Earlier this month it was announced that Google had quietly set up Pengji Information Technology (Shanghai) Ltd inside the free-trade zone which may see the USA tech giant pursuing a return to the country by launching a GooglePlay store for China which agrees to comply with the local laws on filtering content.

China needs to enact laws that govern the sector and tackle illegal activities that violate user privacy and intellectual property rights, Li said.

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.

Editor’s note: The Second World Internet Conference, also known as the Wuzhen Summit, is taking place in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.

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.

The World Internet Conference was held in China this year and last. And in a sign of China’s growing assertiveness on the internet, the paper suggested that China’s “experiments” in creating a different definition of internet freedom were attracting interest from many countries that it said were alienated by the current “U.S. dominated” model.

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

“The development of Internet in China has gone beyond its own domain as it is connected with the real economy in an increasingly large scale”.