PRESIDENT Xi Jinping called yesterday for governments to cooperate in regulating Internet use and said the international community should respect the “Internet sovereignty” of individual countries.

    Speaking at a government-organized conference attended by executives of global and Chinese Internet companies, which opened yesterday in Wuzhen in eastern Zhejiang Province, Xi called for creating a global “governance system” to reflect the “wishes and interests of all countries.”

    He said that would help fight online crime and terrorism and promote “healthy development” of the Internet.

    “Cyberspace shouldn’t be a battlefield,” Xi said. “There should be no double standards in safeguarding network security.”

    The Internet should not be a place to promote rivalry among different countries or a bed of crime, and the international community needs to work together to combat terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering, Xi said.

    Officials said China has been the victim of a large number of cyberattacks from Internet servers based in some developed countries, such as the United States.

    In September, Xi and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to refrain from conducting or supporting online theft of trade secrets or competitive business information.

    The gathering was the second annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen. The three-day conference was organized by the Cyberspace Administration of China.

    Organizers said some 2,000 people from over 120 countries and regions attended the meeting, including representatives of Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Lenovo Group and Baidu Inc., President Mamnoon Hussain of Pakistan and officials from Russia and Kazakhstan. Jack Ma, Pony Ma and Li Yanhong, the heads of Internet giants Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, respectively, were also present.

    At last year’s Wuzhen conference, organizers tried unsuccessfully to persuade global Internet companies to endorse a call for the world community to “respect Internet sovereignty” and “spread positive energy.”

    The Internet business has contributed enormously to brisk consumption, which is a key area in China’s attempts to shift from economic growth based on investment and exports to one based on consumer spending and innovation.

    China had 668 million Internet users and over 4.13 million websites by July 2015, the biggest number of any country in the world. All cities and towns and 93.5 percent of villages have Internet access. China has promised to expand Internet coverage to every administrative village in the country by 2020.

    (SD-Xinhua)

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