Alibaba is one of China's biggest online shopping sites. (Photo : Getty Images)
China will host for the third time the World Internet Conference in Zhejiang Province in November. President Xi Jinping will be giving a speech via video, according to Ren Xianliang, deputy head of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
The conference is set for Nov. 16 to 18 and will be attended by Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
Ren said, "The WIC will display leading technologies and achievements in China and the world's Internet development. "
This year's conference theme is "Innovation-driven Internet development for the benefit of all--building a community of common future in cyberspace."
There will be a special expo for 300 domestic and foreign leading Internet companies. There will also be 16 forums.
According to the organizer, the WIC will discuss 20 Internet-related topics, including the economy, innovation, culture, regulation and collaboration in cyberspace.
The first WIC in China was themed "an interconnected world shared and governed by all."
"Join us in building up a peaceful, safe, open and cooperative cyberspace," urged Internet chief Lu Wei.
However, human rights group Amnesty International criticized China for suppressing freedom of speech online and convinced other countries to do the same.
In a statement, Amnesty International said, "Now China appears eager to promote its own domestic Internet rules as a model for global regulation. This should send a chill down the spine of anyone that values online freedom."
Google's Eric Schmidt also criticized China's online censorship. He said, "You can't build a high-end, very sophisticated economy... with this kind of active censorship."
Rupert Murdoch of News Corp commented that the level of high technology in communications "pose an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere."
The Chinese online marketplace is still growing despite government regulation. At present, there are 600 million online consumers in China.
