China will keep its Internet sector open to the world while maintaining cybersecurity according to the country’s laws, the head of China’s Internet regulatory body said on Tuesday.
Economic opening-up and effective governance of the Web by law have played key roles in the growth of China's Internet over the past two decades, Lu Wei, director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said in an interview China Daily.
"China will never close the door to the rest of the world," he said. "We will learn the latest technologies and experience to build a win-win Internet world."
Lu's remarks, made ahead of the Second World Internet Conference in Wuhan in eastern Zhejiang Province on Wednesday, come amid rising pressures on the Chinese government over cybersecurity.
China has an estimated 670 million Internet users--one-fifth of the world's total--making it ideal target for a wide range of cybercrimes including data theft and illegal gambling.
Zhao Houlin, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, an information and communication technologies agency under the United Nations, said that China has still much to offer in terms of dealing with Internet security issues with the rest of the world.
"China's experience in developing the Internet industry and methods to increase the Internet penetration rate are valuable assets for the world in building a better connected Web," he said.
Zhao also urged all the major Internet players to solve disagreements amid recent tensions.
"Each country has its own right to deploy Internet services. . . . There is no fixed single mode we can follow. We should encourage countries to develop their own Internet services suitable for their own environments," he added.
Zhao encouraged China and the U.S. to try and reach a "compromise agreement" wherein both countries can concentrate on widening the global Internet market.
Li Xiaodong, director of the China Internet Network Information Center, said that as long as China's online data is secure, its online market is wide open to the world.
China needs to enact laws that govern the sector and tackle illegal activities that violate user privacy and intellectual property rights, Li said.
The government's move to better regulate China's cyberspace has had wide support from Internet companies.
Zhang, a senior planner at online medical consultancy firm We Doctor Group, said that data safety is a top priority for their industry.
The government's move to strengthen China's cyberspace regulations has been widely hailed by local Internet companies. "To some extent, data security is more critical for us than the services we provide today," Zhang said.