Country mulls laws to govern activity and innovation online

China will manage cyberspace according to the rule of law, while providing more room for development based on the market, the national Internet watchdog said.

The country has been accelerating Internet-related legislation, while encouraging Web companies to provide more innovative products and services since the Cyberspace Administration of China was established in April last year.

The top legislature has sped up the enactment of cybersecurity and anti-terrorism laws to fight rumors and terrorism and to protect privacy, while the administration has also conducted several campaigns to clean up the Internet environment.

For example, the authority issued a rule to curb fake information on WeChat, the most popular instant messaging tool in the country, after abundant rumors on the platform.

China has also issued several policies to encourage the development of cyberspace, such as the Internet-Plus initiative raised by Premier Li Keqiang in March.

Meanwhile, China has been keen to participate in the international governance of cyberspace, as it has the largest number of netizens in the world and wants to transfer the industry’s orientation from the government to the market, the administration said.

Internet-related issues have been hot topics during talks between China and the United States, and President Xi Jinping mentioned cyberspace publicly four times during his visit to the US in September.

In July, Xi gave a speech in Brazil in which he proposed jointly building a peaceful, safe, open and cooperative cyberspace, as well as a multilateral, democratic and transparent governance system.

With the second World Internet Conference approaching, Lu Wei, director of the administration, said during a news conference last week that China will continue highlighting the rule of law and innovation in cyberspace.

The three-day conference, to be held from Dec 16 to 18 in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, will also focus on cybersecurity and protecting information, as well as how to improve peoples’ lives by developing the Internet, Lu said.

China hopes to reduce misunderstandings in governing cyberspace and reach more consensus on Internet-related topics with more than 2,000 guests－50 percent of them foreigners from more than 120 countries and regions. Of the foreign guests, eight are foreign leaders and nearly 50 are minister-level officials, it said.

The conference will have 10 forums with 22 topics, including Internet cultures, innovations and cyberspace governance, the Cyberspace Administration of China said.