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How China looks at opportunities & challenges of Internet

People's Daily of China | Tuesday, 22 November 2016


The goal of building an equal, innovative, open and safer cyberspace that Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward for global Internet governance at the start of the World Internet Conference (WIC) injects Chinese wisdom into the construction of a cyberspace community of common destiny.
Xi called for building a cyberspace community of common destiny featuring equality and respect, innovative development, openness and sharing, as well as security and order while giving a speech last week via livestream video to the opening ceremony of the third WIC in the riverside town of Wuzhen in East China's Zhejiang Province, pledging China's cooperation with the international community.
The Internet has brought earthshaking changes to the thinking of human beings, their lifestyle, as well as the global architecture of economy, interest and security. Though the booming technology innovation and application have prevailed, the lingering imbalance, spawned rules, and disorder pose challenges to the global Internet space.
The global cyberspace is also threatened by risks like disclosure of private information, infringement of personal privacy and intellectual property, rampant cyber crimes, cyber attacks, cyber terrorism and other unresolved public hazards.
What's more, the current cyberspace management rules can not address needs of the majority of countries. Widening information gap between different nations and regions must be narrowed down first in order to build a cyberspace community of common destiny.
Of the four targets raised by Xi, "equality and respect" servers as the primary requirement. The present conflicts and imbalances in global cyberspace require a stronger institutional architecture, a multilateral, democratic and transparent reform of the Internet governance system, as well as more trust and cooperation among stakeholders under the framework of cyberspace sovereignty.
The "innovative development" is an indigenous demand for the industry. In order to cope with the global imbalance in Internet technologies, the world has to resort to innovation for all-shared benefits.
The world should share the Internet technologies and applications by updating the mindset, ideology and rules, breaking the monopoly of core technologies and standards and encouraging more competition in core technologies, standards and products, thus building a transparent, balanced and secure cyberspace.
An "open and shared" Internet is necessary because the Internet technology can only be advanced in application and communication.
The sharing economy, inclusive finance, intelligent health care, artificial intelligence, e-commerce and a host of other dividends brought by an open Internet can lead the world toward a community of common destiny and shared prosperity.
A "secure and orderly" Internet environment is the basic precondition for cyberspace community. Proper settlement of cyberspace threats like information leakage, cyber espionage and Internet fraud is critically important.
Each country, especially the developing ones, should join hands to crack down on universal hazards like Internet attacks and online terrorism, maintain a clean and orderly domestic cyber environment and sustain the peace and stability of international cyberspace.
Though China is a major Internet user, it is not yet an Internet power in the world. Like most countries in the Third World, China faces both opportunities and challenges presented by Internet development.
Amid such backdrop, China will not only contribute products, technologies and market, but also systems, culture and ideas to build an interconnected cyberspace community of shared destiny, so that the Internet could bring more bonus to the world.
Courtesy: People's Daily of China.
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