China to Regulate Internet and Support Its Development

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, there is nothing wrong with China's recent regulatory measures on the Internet.

The commission defends the new rules as being in line with international practices.

"Development of the Internet requires regulation," Xu Shaoshi, minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated at a press conference during the ongoing National People's Congress annual session.

Xu believes that China, which now has the world's largest population of net users, should have in place the proper regulations that would ensure a fair and orderly development of the Internet.

Xu's comments came after U.S. President Barack Obama criticized the country's move--the drafting of its first-ever counter-terrorism law--as being a violation of privacy of U.S. technology firms.

The new law mandates all technology firms operating in China to surrender their encryption keys, pass codes and other pertinent and traditionally private data.

"This is something that I've raised directly with President Xi," Obama told Reuters. "We have made it very clear to them that this is something they are going to have to change if they are to do business with the United States."

Beijing already slammed back against the U.S. president, saying it should not intervene on a domestic legislation as it would violate the country's sovereignty.

Ironically, despite President Obama's strong reactions to the new counter-terrorism law, one of the world's largest tech giants, Apple, seems to have already agreed to abide by the law. Back in January, it was reported that Apple allowed Chinese authorities to carry out security audits on its products to make sure it is not divulging user data with the U.S. government.

Xu, for his part, does not believe that an Internet regulation could harm any law-abiding companies in the first place.

"We will better regulate the Internet and support its development in China," he firmly stated.