Positive internet power

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed the need for the country to grasp the historic opportunity of the information revolution and step up its efforts to be an internet power at a national conference on the work of cybersecurity and informatization held from Friday to Saturday in Beijing.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, China has achieved historic progress in the development of cybersecurity and informatization and formed a model of cyberspace governance with Chinese characteristics. Despite this, there are still various challenges to be overcome.

It is absolutely necessary, as Xi stressed, for the Party and government to clearly understand the Party’s leadership, the strategic objective of building China into a network power, the principles and requirements of the objective, the proposal for global governance over the development of the internet, and the basic methods for cybersecurity and informatization work.

Cybersecurity and informatization are of vital importance to China’s efforts to develop a modernized economy and achieve highquality development, and efforts should be made to develop the digital economy, deepen the integration between the internet, big data, artificial intelligence and the real economy, and make the manufacturing, agriculture and service sectors more digitalized, smart, and internet-powered.

Particularly as the US’ recent action against ZTE indicates China must spare no efforts to achieve breakthroughs in core information technologies, and therefore tilt more resources into research, development and policymaking.

While the authorities must pay more attention to cracking down on criminal acts such as hacking, fraud and violation of citizens’ privacy, they should by no means be the only defenders of cybersecurity and promoting good cyber governance.

Efforts should be made to enhance self-discipline of the whole internet industry. Internet service providers should take the initiative to prevent cyberspace from degrading into a platform full of harmful, false, and provocative information. Enterprises should spread positive information and uphold the correct outlooks and values.