By He Yin
China is ready to work with other countries to seize the historic opportunities presented by the information revolution, foster new growth drivers through innovation, break new ground in digital cooperation, create a new pattern for cybersecurity, build a community with a shared future in cyberspace, and join hands to create a brighter future for humanity, said Chinese President Xi Jinping.
He made the remarks in a congratulatory letter to the 2020 World Internet Conference (WIC) Internet Development Forum, which kicked off in Wuzhen, east China’s Zhejiang province, on Nov. 23.
Xi’s letter shows China’s sincere wishes to join hands with other countries in the world to boost thedevelopment of the Internet and digital economy, injecting impetus and charting the route for the efforts of various countries to fully releasethe potential of digital economy and jointly promoteglobal Internet governance.
At the critical moment when the world is fighting COVID-19 and exploring ways to achieve economic recovery,how to strengthen solidarity and cooperation, maintain fairness and justice, and share digital dividends in cyberspace has become a major taskfacing all countries.
Since the novel coronavirus outbreak, telemedicine, e-learning, sharing platforms and collaboration systems have been widely used, Xi said, hailing the internet’s important role in promoting economic recovery, ensuring social progress in countries around the world, and promoting international cooperation against COVID-19.
In the future, countries need to actively respond to changes,turn crises into opportunities, further strengthen global Internet governance and amplify the positive effects of digital economy.
In this way, they are able to generate new opportunities for jointly fighting the pandemic, developing the world economy, responding to global challenges, and benefiting people of all countries.
In the current context, jointly building a community with a shared future in cyberspace has become increasingly important and urgent.
Cyberspace is the common space of activities for mankind. The future of cyberspace should be in the hands of all countries.
Developing cyberspace intoa community where people can jointly advance development, safeguard security, participate in governance, and share the benefits with the philosophy of “achieving shared development, ensuring common security, realizing joint governance, and enjoying benefits together” suits the trend of the times and conforms to the will of people in all countries.
To improve the global Internet governance system and maintain the order of cyberspace, countries should firmly follow the concept of mutual support, mutual trust and mutual benefit and reject the old mentality of zero-sum game or “winner takes all”.
They should also emphasize both security and development, respect cyber sovereignty, and promote fairness and justice.
China has put forward the Global Initiative on Data Security andthree principles that should be followed in global digital governance, namely upholding multilateralism, balancing security and development, and ensuring fairness and justice, as well as eight specific proposals,further making contributions to discussing and formulating global digital governance rules with other countries. China’s initiative and proposals havedrawn wide attention and received warm welcome from the international community.
The initiatives put forward by China will help advance the formulation of international standards in the field of data security and expand Russia-China cooperation in international information security, said Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia.
As a beneficiary of the Internet and digital technology, Chinahas also been taking concrete actions to help countries jointly explore space for Internet development and share the dividends of digital economic growth.
In 2019, China’s digital economy hit 35.8 trillion yuan (about $5.45 trillion), accounting for 36.2 percent of the country’s GDP, said a recently released report on China’s Internet development.
The total scale and growth rate of China’s digital economy rank among the top in the world.
China has held the WIC for seven consecutive years, building a global Internet platform for joint governance andshared interestsin cyberspace.
A total of 130 well-known companies and institutions participated in the Light of Internet Expo at this year’s WIC, exhibiting new digital technologies, new products, new applications, and new results in AI, cloud computing, big data, blockchain, 5G and other fields.
Besides, 15 of the world’s leading Internet scientific and technological achievements were unveiled at the forum, demonstrating the practical results achieved in building a community with a shared future in cyberspace.
As a line in the famous ancient Chinese book, Book of Changes, goes, “All good principles should adapt to changing times to remain relevant.” Digital economy is certainly the development trend of the world.
Countries should proactively grasp the opportunities of the times, foster new growth drivers through technological innovation and digital transformation, jointlyrealize development of higher quality and stronger resilience, and promote the construction of a community with a shared future in cyberspace, so that people all over the world could benefit from the fruits of Internet development.
