China is increasingly seeking not just domestic but international influence over cyberspace.
A new report in People’s Daily interviewed five Chinese experts on Internet security and political thought, including Fang Binxing (credited with creating China’s “Great Firewall”). The report focuses on the idea of “Internet sovereignty” — the idea that each country has the right to control its domestic internet space. Yet by moving from a discussion of China’s rights to talk of international law, the report moves beyond a defense of China’s internet censorship to outlining China’s vision for global internet governance.
The idea of China’s “Internet sovereignty” is a high-profile resurrection of a concept first rolled out in a 2010 white paper called “The Internet in China.” The white paper explained the “Internet sovereignty of China” as meaning that “within Chinese territory the Internet is under the jurisdiction of Chinese sovereignty.” All persons and organizations operating within Chinese territory are expected to follow China’s Internet laws and regulations, the white paper said.
In an interview with New Yorker’s Evan Osnos at the time, Columbia University professor Tim Wu noted that China’s idea of “Internet sovereignty” was simply “a statement of private international law as typically practiced.” Most countries, Wu noted, have decided that the Internet is subject to national laws. The difference between China and the rest of the world, according to Wu, was simply one of scale: “Other countries, if they don’t consider the Internet sovereign, have a certain respect for the network as a platform for free speech … Again this varies from place to place, but China is unique in its lack of respect for the idea of an open Internet.”