Xi slams 'double standards,' advocates shared future in cyberspace

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Second World Internet Conference in Wuzhen Town, East China's Zhejiang province, Dec. 16, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

WUZHEN -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday lashed out at "double standards" in safeguarding cyber security at an Internet conference organized by China, urging countries to "jointly build a community of shared future in cyberspace."

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Second World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen of East China's Zhejiang province, Xi urged the fostering of "a peaceful, secure, open and cooperative cyberspace" and the building of "a multilateral, democratic and transparent global Internet governance system."

He listed "imbalanced development, inadequate rules and inequitable order" as problems and challenges concerning the Internet.

"The information gap between countries and regions is widening, and the existing rules governing cyberspace hardly reflect the desires and interests of the majority of countries," Xi said.

"Cyber surveillance, cyber attacks and cyber terrorism have become a global scourge," he said, noting the periodic occurrence worldwide of infringements of individual privacy and intellectual property rights.

Since gaining access to the Internet 21 years ago, China has followed a policy of "a proactive utilization, rational development, law-based management and assurance of security," according to Xi.

With around 670 million users and over 4.13 million websites in China, the Internet and economic and social development have become intrinsically linked.

China will vigorously implement the national cyber development strategy, the national big data strategy, and the "Internet Plus" action plan in the next five years, said Xi.

Co-hosted by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Zhejiang provincial government, the three-day conference is attended by more than 2,000 people from over 120 countries and regions.

They include Jack Ma, Pony Ma and Li Yanhong, the heads of Internet giants Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Temir Sariyev, Tajik Prime Minister Qohir Rasulzoda, First Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Rustam Azimov, the International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Zhao Houlin and World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab also addressed at the opening ceremony.

Wu Hongbo, UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs read a message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the meeting.

Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, chaired the opening ceremony.