China President Xi Jinping Calls For Greater Internet Security, Cooperation

Speaking at the second World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, Xi said that the worldwide community should “respect the right of individual countries to choose their own path to cyber development, model of cyber regulation and participate on the same footing”.

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

China has an estimated 670 million Internet users-one-fifth of the world’s total-making it ideal target for a wide range of cybercrimes including data theft and illegal gambling.

Lu’s remarks, made ahead of the Second World Internet Conference in Wuhan in eastern Zhejiang Province on Wednesday, come amid rising pressures on the Chinese government over cybersecurity.

The conference 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.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for global cooperation regulating the Internet.

Two days before Xi took to the podium, Pu Zhiqiang, one of China’s most celebrated human rights lawyers, stood trial over just seven microblog posts critical of the ruling Communist Party that could earn him up to eight years behind bars.

“Tech companies, including Apple, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Microsoft, must be prepared to say “no” to China’s repressive Internet regime and put people and principles before profits”, Roseann Rife, East Asia research director at Amnesty International, said in a release on Tuesday. “This is a very important conference as the Internet is rapidly developing”.

“Internet policy in China is never an entity in itself or separated from its fundamental political system”, Qiao said.

China’s largely rubber stamp parliament in July also passed a sweeping national security law that tightened government control in politics, culture, the military, the economy, technology and the environment. “We warmly welcome enterprises and entrepreneurs to invest in China, as long as they are in accordance with Chinese laws”, Xi emphasized in his speech.

After the out of the US National Security Agency’s PRISM program, more countries have woken up to the fact that “absolute Internet freedom” touted by the US will only end up as “absolute security” in Washington and “absolute insecurity” for the rest.

“There should be no double standards in safeguarding network security”, he said.

The president said that since gaining access to the Internet 21 years ago, China had followed a policy of a proactive utilisation, scientific development, law-based management, and assurance of security.

China is a responsible major country that supports peaceful development and win-win cooperation by injecting its cherished philosophy to enhance joint efforts to promote interoperability and cyberspace governance.