China’s Top Ideologue Calls for Tight Control of Internet
China’s Top Ideologue Calls for Tight Control of Internet
By PAUL MOZUR DEC. 3, 2017
WUZHEN, China — Little heard from but hugely influential,
the professor-turned-Communist theoretician who has been a major adviser to three
Chinese leaders finally stepped out of the shadows on Sunday.
Known as the brain behind President Xi Jinping, Wang
Huning made his first major speech since joining the Politburo Standing
Committee, the seven-member group that rules China, at a conference created to
show off the country’s technological strengths to the world.
Well known for his icy remove and support of
authoritarianism, Mr. Wang called for security and order on the internet as
part of five proposals he made to guide the future of cyberspace. He also
emphasized China’s technological prowess, and said more should be done by the
government to guide the development of new industries like artificial
intelligence and quantum computing.
Mr. Wang stepped onto the world stage before an audience
that included Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, along with an all-star
cast of Chinese tech entrepreneurs, such as Jack Ma of Alibaba.
Mr. Wang, 62, had emerged as the ideological counselor to
Chinese leaders and the wordsmith of Mr. Xi’s more authoritarian style before
being tapped to join the Standing Committee at a Communist Party congress in
Beijing two months ago. A close confidant of Mr. Xi and the two previous
Chinese presidents, Mr. Wang was promoted despite never having governed a province
or run a state ministry.
On Sunday, Mr. Wang praised China’s president for his
“deep understanding” of internet governance. He said the international
community had “warmly received” Mr. Xi’s ideas about the internet, including
the concept of cybersovereignty — a Chinese policy term used to argue that
countries should be free to control the internet within their borders, even if
it means censoring.
“Global cyberspace governance has no onlookers — we are
all participants,” he said, adding that “all parties” should have a say over
how the internet is managed across the world.
The speech echoed arguments that Mr. Wang has made
before. In the 1990s, as a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, he wrote
that because China was so large and poor, it needed a stronger hand from the
government to push through economic development. He said that such
authoritarian rule was necessary for China to restore its national greatness
after what the Communist Party has often described as a century of humiliation
at the hands of foreign powers.
This has made Mr. Wang a longtime skeptic of calls for
China to allow greater democracy despite his extensive experience abroad,
including in the United States. And while he has said he admires the strength
of the United States, Mr. Wang has also been deeply wary of American power.
His speech on Sunday showed how China’s vision of the
internet attempts to wrestle with such tension. Chinese leaders have long
lauded the economic power of the internet, while being deeply cautious about
its democratizing and internationalizing influence.
In his speech, Mr. Wang highlighted China’s openness and
the need for equal access to the internet. Yet China has led the way in cutting
its internet off from the world with filters and blocks known as the Great
Firewall of China. It has also blocked internet access in areas where members
of minority groups live, to limit the potential for unrest.
Such contradictions were evident at the World Internet
Conference, which was dreamed up by Chinese officials who wanted to create a
Davos-style conference for technology. It has been held annually since 2014 in
Wuzhen, an ancient canal town about 75 miles from Shanghai.
While many major foreign websites are blocked in China,
the wireless connections at the conference allowed open access to the global
internet. A promotional video that was shown before Mr. Wang’s speech showed
the web connecting China to the world, ignoring the existence of the Great
Firewall.
For the format of his talk, Mr. Wang followed the lead of
Mr. Xi. His offering of five proposals appeared to have been inspired by a
speech by Mr. Xi at the second World Internet Conference, when the president
offered five ideas for developing the internet.
The conference also marked a fresh start of sorts for its
organizer, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the government body that
also oversees the country’s internet. Weeks before the conference, the Chinese
state media reported that the administration’s former head, Lu Wei, was put
under investigation by the Communist Party’s anticorruption agency.
Mr. Lu’s successor, Xu Lin, was present at the
conference, which also included more prominent foreign chief executives than in
the past, including Sundar Pichai of Google and Mr. Cook of Apple. Analysts say
Mr. Xu has been ordered to consolidate the administration’s power, and also
turn the conference into a higher-profile event.
In his speech, Mr. Cook highlighted Apple’s contribution
to China’s economy, saying that Chinese developers have earned more than 112
billion renminbi, or $16.9 billion, by selling apps to Apple users, more than
developers from any other country.
The presence of Mr. Cook and Mr. Pichai lends a stronger
credibility to a conference that has struggled to attract top executives from
overseas. It also underscores growing concerns among American technology
companies that a United States government investigation into Chinese trade
practices could result in a trade spat, damaging the huge American business
interests in China.
Carolyn Zhang contributed reporting.
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