Democracy, transparency key words in Xi's speech

Zhang Ying, associate dean for China business and relations at Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University in the Netherlands

Democracy and transparency are the keywords in President Xi Jinping's speech. They are the Internet governance principles to achieve Internet freedom and order. Along with what Xi emphasizes in this conference: freedom is what order is meant for and order is the foundation for freedom. China has been on the way to Internet governance transformation, but at the same time requests the world to respect and accept its effort.

Democracy means variety and freedom; transparency implies respect and regulation. Xi's speech implies a serious call for a collective discussion on international Internet governance as well as decision-making models for an upgraded international Internet order and regulation.

The World Internet Conference is very important and especially to bring Internet-related issues such as cyber development and security and collaboration and Internet companies/sectors together at a larger and open international platform to meet and discuss.

The initiation of this conference (since last year) implies China's vision to integrate into international Internet governance for a global audience. The collaboration with a list of key Internet companies to set up this conference indicates China's effort in cyber integration at multilevel platform from a global perspective.