Calling the internet the shared home of all of humanity, the white paper said it is the common responsibility of the international community to make this home cleaner, safer, and more prosperous.
China's State Council Information Office on Monday, November 7, issued a white paper titled "Jointly Build a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace." The white paper introduced China's vision of internet development and governance in the new era and its actions, shared its achievements in promoting the building of a community with a shared future in cyberspace, and outlined the prospects for international cooperation.
As the expert of the BRICS Competition Centre Maria Belyaeva notes, the concept of a "community with a shared future in cyberspace" is one of the variations of the central concept of Chinese President Xi Jinping about a "community with a shared future for Mankind," which is further divided into narrower sub-concepts: for example, a shared future in the environment, in science and technology, there is even a division by region — the Asia-Pacific community.
"All of them imply common responsibility for development and the impossibility to divide problems and risks into "our own" and "someone else's" — it is necessary to solve them by joint efforts. The same principles apply to the Internet, which, according to the White Paper, poses global threats and challenges to people,"
explains the expert.
The internet has turned the world into a global village, and the international community is becoming more and more interconnected, with a shared future becoming more apparent, the white paper said. The paper called it the responsibility of all of humanity to develop, use, and manage the internet well and make it more beneficial to mankind.
It is important to note that we are talking about shared responsibility for solving problems, and not about global interoperability and interoperability of the Internet space — in the international arena we see the opposite trend, namely the strengthening of control and protection of their data within the borders of states, emphasizes Maria Belyaeva. For example, China is actively strengthening security checks when exporting data - since recently, operators of critical information infrastructure or processing personal information of more than 1 million users have been required to undergo such checks. The U.S. is also sensitive to the risks of leaks: it bans the use of Huawei and ZTE equipment, and U.S. officials regularly urge to give up TikTok at least to government employees.
China is set to build up its strength in cyberspace and digital technologies, said the white paper.
"The progress has been made in boosting the digital economy, building a clean and sound online environment, and guarding against risks to cyberspace security,"
quotes the white paper the state-run Xinhua news agency.
- By 2021, the value of China's digital economy had reached 45.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 39.8 percent of its GDP, said the white paper.
- By June 2022, there were 1.05 billion internet users in China, and the internet penetration rate had reached 74.4 percent, read the white paper.
- The country hosts the world's largest 5G network and becomes one of the global leaders in 5G standards and technology, with 1.85 million 5G cell towers and 455 million 5G cell phone subscribers.
- In 2021, China's online retail sales of consumer goods stood at 10.8 trillion yuan, up 12 percent year-on-year, said the white paper.
- The turnover in China's cross-border e-commerce reached 1.92 trillion yuan, up 18.6 percent year-on-year.
China has engaged in active cross-border collaboration in terms of the digital economy, cyberspace security, and reform and development of global cyberspace governance to promote inclusive development of the internet, said the paper, noting that all these efforts contribute to building a community with a shared future in cyberspace.
"China proposes to strengthen international cooperation in cyberspace management: to work out unified rules and common mechanisms of risk prevention, to introduce digital mechanisms in socially important sectors, but at the same time to be sure to maintain respect for cyber sovereignty,"
says Maria Belyaeva.
China has actively developed digital public products and expanded cooperation in digital public services. Since the global outbreak of COVID-19, pandemic forecasting platforms and robocalls developed in China have helped control and mitigation in other countries, read the white paper.
The expert points out that the White Paper specifically mentions the importance of regulating digital platforms - including through antitrust policy. China stays true to its strategy of "equal importance of regulation and development": bans, investigations and fines are not intended to limit growth (as seems to be the case in the short term), but to stimulate it over the long haul by eliminating "unhealthy symptoms" at an early stage.
Source: Xinhua
