Chinese Cybersecurity and Defense E-Book
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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Cyberdefense has become, over the past five years, a major issue on the international scene. China, by the place it occupies, is the subject of attention: it is observed, criticized, and designated by many states as a major player in the global cyber-insecurity. The United States is building their cyberdefense strategy against what they call the "Chinese threat." It is therefore important to better understand today's challenges related to cyber dimension in regard of the rise of China. Contributions from international researchers provide cross perspectives on China, its strategies and policies for cybersecurity and cyberdefense. These issues have now gained major strategic dimension: Is Cyberspace changing the scene of international relations? How China does apprehend cybersecurity and cyberdefense? What are the issues, challenges? What is the role of China in the global cyberspace?
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Seitenzahl: 378
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014
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Contents
Author Biographies
Introduction
1 China’s Internet Development and Cybersecurity – Policies and Practices
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Internet development in China: an overview
1.3. China’s policies towards Internet development
1.4. Cyber legislation and Internet administration
1.5. Cybersecurity and diplomacy: an international perspective
1.6. A cybersecurity strategy in the making?
1.7. Conclusion
2 PLA Views on Informationized Warfare, Information Warfare and Information Operations
2.1. The evolution of chinese military thinking
2.2. The growing importance of information
2.3. Information operations
2.4. Key types of information operations
2.5. Computer network warfare and information operations
3 China’s Adaptive Internet Management Strategy after the Emergence of Social Networks
3.1. Weibo: the turning point
3.2. Latest adjustments under Xi Jinping
3.3. Bibliography
4 India’s Cybersecurity – The Landscape
4.1. A snapshot of Asian cyberspace
4.2. The Indian cyber landscape
4.3. The China challenge: a case study
4.4. Responses
4.5. Creating an institutional framework
4.6. Takeaways
5 China and Southeast Asia: Offline Information Penetration and Suspicions of Online Hacking – Strategic Implications from a Singaporean Perspective
5.1. Offline sphere: latent “diasporic” information power and official Chinese soft power
5.2. The online sphere: hacktivism as mostly projections
5.3. Conclusion: offline politics strategically obscure online projections
5.4. Bibliography
6 Impact of Mongolia’s Choices in International Politics on Cybersecurity
6.1. Mongolia’s cyberspace
6.2. Cyberspace and political stakes
6.3. Information-space security policy
7 China-Iran-Russia – A Cybercommunity of Information?
7.1. The hall marks of cyber-cooperation
7.2. The geopolitical bases for the cyber-Mongol empire
7.3. Order in cyberspace: an absolute necessity within China
8 Discourse Regarding China: Cyberspace and Cybersecurity
8.1. Identification of prevailing themes
8.2. The evolution of American discourse about China, Cybersecurity and cyberdefense
8.3. Conclusion
General Conclusion
List of Authors
Index
First published 2014 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030USA
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© ISTE Ltd 2014The rights of Daniel Ventre to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014941991
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA CIP record for this book is available from the British LibraryISBN 978-1-84821-614-3
Author Biographies
Dean Cheng is the Senior Research Fellow for Chinese political and security affairs at the Asia Studies Center of The Heritage Foundation. He specializes in Chinese military and foreign policy, and has written extensively on Chinese military doctrine, technological implications of its space program, and “dual use” issues associated with China’s industrial and scientific infrastructure.
Before joining The Heritage Foundation, he was a senior analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded research and development center, and a senior analyst with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the Fortune 500 specialist in defense and homeland security. He has testified before Congress, spoken at the (American) National Defense University, US Air Force Academy, and the National Space Symposium, and been published in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
Alan Chong is Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He has published widely on the notion of soft power and the role of ideas in constructing the international relations of Singapore and Asia. His publications have appeared in The Pacific Review; International Relations of the Asia-Pacific; Asian Survey; East Asia: an International Quarterly; Politics, Religion and Ideology; the Review of International Studies; the Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Armed Forces and Society. He is also the author of Foreign Policy in Global Information Space: Actualizing Soft Power (Palgrave, 2007). He is currently working on several projects exploring the notion of ‘Asian international theory’. His interest in soft power has also led to inquiry into the sociological and philosophical foundations of international communication. In the latter area, he is currently working on a manuscript titled ‘The International Politics of Communication: Representing Community in a Globalizing World’. In tandem, he has pursued a fledgling interest in researching cyber security issues. He has frequently been interviewed in the Asian media and consulted in think-tank networks in the region.
Alice Ekman is Associate Research Fellow in charge of China at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), where she conducts analyses of major domestic and foreign policy developments. She is an Adjunct Professor at Sciences Po in Paris, and also lectures at the French Institute for Higher National Defense Studies and the War College. Alice Ekman was formerly Visiting Scholar at Tsinghua University (Beijing), Research Officer at the Embassy of France in China, and Consultant in a Paris-based strategy firm. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, she regularly undertakes research fieldwork in China and East Asia.
She holds an MA from the London School of Economics in International Relations, Economics, and Anthropology (China focus), and a PhD in International Relations from Sciences Po. Alice Ekman is currently a member of the EU committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP).
Thomas Flichy de La Neuville is Professor in international relations at Saint-Cyr military academy. Specialist of Iran, he has studied persian in the National Institute of Oriental Languages an cultures and holds a PhD in legal history. He is visiting professor in Oxford and Annapolis. Amongst his recent publications, Iran-Russia-China, a new mongol empire?
Xu Longdi is a PhD and Associate Research Fellow at China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), Beijing. He received his PhD in international relations from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in 2009 and joined CIIS the same year. His expertise covers International Relations Theory, international security, and EU politics and foreign policy. Now he runs a program on “International Norms and Cyber Security”.
Samuel Cherian is Associate Fellow in the Strategic Technologies Centre at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, an autonomous think tank affiliated to the Indian Ministry of Defence. He has written on various cyber security issues, including critical infrastructure protection, cyber resilience, cybercrime, and internet governance. He has also presented on these topics at seminars and round tables around the world as well as different fora in India. His recent publications include Cybersecurity and Cyberwar, (October 2013 issue of Seminar magazine), Emerging Trends in Cyber Security, (IDSA Web Comments March 28, 2012), and Prospects for India-US Cyber Security Cooperation, (Volume 31, Issue 2, Strategic Analysis September 2011). His monograph Global, Regional and Domestic Dynamics of Cybersecurity will be published shortly. He was co-ordinator of the IDSA Task Force on Cyber Security which published a report on “India's Cyber Security Challenges” in March 2012.
He holds a PhD from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Daniel Ventre holds a PhD in Political Science (University of Versailles). He is the Secretary General of GERN (Groupe Européen de Recherches sur les Normativités – European Research Group into Norms), researcher at CESDIP (Center for Sociological Research on Law and Criminal Justice Institutions. CNRS/University of Versailles/Ministry of Justice), Chairholder in Cyber Security & Cyber Defense (Saint-Cyr/Sogeti/Thales). He is the author of a number of books and articles (published in French, English and Chinese) on cyberwarfare, information warfare, cyberconflict, cybersecurity and cyberdefense. He has published:
Information Warfare – National Defense Industry Press, Beijing, 218 pages, January 2014.
Cyber Conflicts, Competing National Perspectives, ISTE, London and John Wiley & Sons, New York, May 2012, 330 pages.
Cyberwar and Information Warfare, ISTE, London and John Wiley & Sons, New York, July 2011, 448 pages.
Cyberattaque et Cyberdéfense, Paris, Editions Hermès Lavoisier, Collection “Cybercriminalité et Cyberconflits”, August 2011, 312 pages.
Cyberespace et acteurs du cyberconflit, Paris, Hermès Lavoisier, Collection “Cybercriminalité et Cyberconflits”, April 2011, 288 pages.
Cyberguerre et guerre de l’information. Stratégies, règles, enjeux, Paris, Hermès Lavoisier, Collection “Cybercriminalité et Cyberconflits”, September 2010, 318 pages.
Information Warfare, ISTE, London and John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2009, 298 pages.
La guerre de l’information, Paris, Hermès Lavoisier, Collection “Finance Gestion Management”, 2007.
Introduction
Regardless of the origins of cyberspace (those who designed it, the founding fathers of computing, of telecoms, of the Internet, the first to give financial backing to these projects, etc.), what is important to look at in today’s world is the current configuration of cyberspace, and its possible future. Whilst a map of the under-sea cable networks shows the Internet as being rather US-centered, or at least organized around the triad of the USA, Europe and Asia, with the other regions of the world appearing to lie on the periphery, this centrality of infrastructures (root name servers, computation capacities, data flux, etc.), but also of investment, research, users, etc., is in the full throes of evolution. Technology and knowledge are now being disseminated throughout the world. Where it is impossible to install hardwired technologies quickly enough, mobile telephony is becoming an important means of access to the Internet. Poorer populations are beginning to gain access to a Web connection. Thus, modern technologies are able to make their effects felt even in territories where they are not as omnipresent as in the United States. The technology is becoming more widely available, and we can see that the barriers to development are not economic or technical, but often political: the development of cyberspace, and the form that it takes, are subject to the will of the political authorities.
Whilst the United States still seem, at present, to be the dominant force in terms of the Internet and cyberspace, the more widely the technology propagates, the less the number of users is concentrated in the Western World. This evolution of cyberspace is contributing to the current shift of power (economic, political and strategic power) from America toward Asia. The report “The World in 2025”1 affirms (and it is not alone in doing so) that “the centre of gravity of world production will move towards Asia [...] Before 2025 China could become the second world economic power”. This shift is not solely economic. It runs deeper, corresponding to the shifting of the very foundations of the power of modern nations: “Before 2025 China could become the second world economic power [...] India and China could thus account for approximately 20% of the world’s R&D”. The configuration of cyberspace is constantly changing as well. There is no truly stable balance. The same report highlights the effects this evolution will inevitably have: “If the United States remain the first military power, the scientific and technological catching-up of some states, the new irregular war tactics and the increasing importance of cyber-attacks will weaken their freedom of action”.
Although, evidently, the domination of cyberspace (particularly in economic, political and military terms) depends on more factors than simply the number of users in a state (there are other variables determining the power balance in cyberspace: political goals, industrial expertise, capital, knowledge, data, infrastructure, the capacity to impose a strategy on all three levels of cyberspace), the evolution of uses and populations of users represents a major phenomenon, because it also reflects the changing desires, political, economic and ideological projects. This evolution reflects, or perhaps heralds, a gradual transfer of power from one center (the United States) to another (China). China is, without a doubt, the major player in this reconfiguration. The stakes are enormously high, because if, tomorrow, the 1.5 billion Chinese were all to have access to the Internet, the configuration of China’s cyberspace itself and of the world as a whole, would be turned on its head. In cyberspace, Asia is becoming the most important resource in terms of users, consumers, citizens, but also (potentially at least) of creators, designers, although innovation in these domains appears, as yet, to be concentrated in Silicon Valley and in Israel (notably in the domain of cybersecurity). The center of innovation, in the field of ICTs, could, in time, be shifted from America, with its giants of industry and research, to Asia. Even at this stage, China has already developed its own solutions – alternatives to the tools employed in the West (Facebook, Twitter, operating systems, etc.), and its industrial players (e.g. Huawei and Lenovo) are in the process of dethroning the historical international market leaders. By exporting its technologies, and investing in the development of infrastructure in developing countries, China is also creating the conditions for future dependency on its technologies. No doubt China will also be able to invest wisely in technologies with a promising future – e.g. those which will feed into the up-and-coming “Internet of Things” – firstly because of its immense national market, but also because engineers, who are already digital natives, constitute a potential creative resource. In addition, a billion or more Chinese citizens in cyberspace also represent phenomenal quantities of data produced. It is a crucial focal point for authorities, companies and even states to be able to cope with these amounts of data. The capacities to innovate, invest and deploy one’s technologies throughout the world constitute as many variables of importance for the power of modern states. Asia, and particularly China, intends to play the leading roles in these domains.
When thinking about the issues of cyberspace, its influence on the quality of international relations and on the evolution of the world, and looking at the importance of cyber strategies for national and international equilibria, China is naturally at the center of the debate. The questions are numerous: what are the variables affecting Chinese power? What is China’s ambition – what role does it hope to play on the international stage? In what ways can its society and its political regime evolve? How does cyberspace fit in with these issues of both internal and international politics? What will be the consequences of the evolution of cyberspace and of its use, for Chinese society, for other countries in the region, and for the rest of the world? Are the proposals formulated and the initiatives taken by China in terms of governance of the Internet able to reshape the interconnection of the world such as it is imagined and defined by the West? The evolution of cyberspace, with the central role that China now plays and will continue to play for a long time to come, is now a matter of security and national defense. Cybersecurity and cyberdefense are political and strategic issues of prime importance. Practices, intentions and projects in this field have a direct influence on international relations. New actors, new forms of relations between states, new powers, conflicts and power distributions are taking shape throughout cyberspace.
The aim of this book is to analyze China’s policies, strategies and practices in the area of cybersecurity and cyberdefense; and also to analyze the effect they have on the political and strategic choices made by other states. Contributions to this work have come from seven researchers, specializing in international relations and issues of cybersecurity. The individual chapters are drawn from a conference which took place in Paris, on 1 July 2013, organized by the Chair of Cyberdefense and Cybersecurity (Saint-Cyr / Sogeti / Thales).
Introduction written by Daniel VENTRE.
1 European Commission, The World in 2025. Rising Asia and Socio-Ecological Transition, Brussels, 2009, 28 pages, [http://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/pdf/the-world-in-2025-report_en.pdf].
1
China’s Internet Development and Cybersecurity – Policies and Practices
1.1. Introduction
After land, sea, air and outer space, many people have dubbed cyberspace as the fifth domain for human activities, with multiple implications for a state. Put simply, the political, economic and security interests of a state are now increasingly connected with cybersecurity. However, the Internet is a double-edged sword, i.e. it brings about not only enormous benefits but also numerous risks, challenges and threats. Therefore, given the borderless, transnational and unique nature of cyberspace, it has become a new frontier for global governance.
China attaches great importance to Internet development and has made enormous progress in this regard. However, as a late comer to this field, China faces various challenges and has been one of the major victims of cyber-attacks. Looking into the future, China is willing to strive for a peaceful, secure, open and cooperative cyberspace together with the international community.
Internationally, there are many doubts about China’s policies and practices in its Internet development because of misunderstanding, prejudice, lack of knowledge, and even ignorance one the one hand. On the other hand, there is an increasing demand for understanding China’s policies and practices in this domain. This chapter tries to introduce some of China’s cyber policies and practices with a view to mitigating the doubts towards China.
This chapter is divided into six sections: the first section presents an overview of the development of Internet in China; the second section introduces China’s policies towards Internet development; the third section elaborates on the cyber legislation and Internet administration in China; the fourth section examines China’s idea on cyber diplomacy and its relevant activities and international cooperation concerning the Internet; the fifth section explores whether there is a cyberstrategy in China and its possible shape in the future. Finally, this chapter draws some temporary conclusions in line with the above analysis.
1.2. Internet development in China: an overview
Although China came relatively late to the Internet, the Chinese government and people warmly greeted the advent of the Internet era. During the mid- and late-1980s, China’s researchers and scholars began to explore in an active manner the use of the Internet with the assistance of their foreign colleagues. On such occasions as the 1992 and 1993 INET annual conferences, Chinese computer specialists asked for Internet access for the Chinese public as a whole, which gained the understanding of and support from their international peers. During the China-U.S. Joint Committee of Science and Technology Cooperation meeting held in Washington in April 1994, the Chinese representatives ultimately reached a consensus with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) on China’s access to the Internet. On 20 April 1994, the CAINONET for Education and Scientific Research in Zhongguancun district, Beijing was linked to the Internet via a 64k special line. This full-function connection marked China’s formal access to the Internet.1
Since its inception in China, the Internet has witnessed a rapid and sound development. As of the end of December 2013, the number of Internet users in China has reached 618 million, a growth of 53.58 million over the end of 2012, according to the 33rdStatistical Report on Internet Development in China2 released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in January 2014. The Internet penetration rate is 45.8%, a growth of 3.7% compared with that at the end of 2012. This figure indicates that the growth rate of the overall scale of Internet users in China has gradually slowed down since 2011.
In the meantime, the number of mobile Internet users has also experienced rapid growth. By the end of 2013, China had 500 million mobile Internet users, a growth of 80.09 million compared with that of 2012 and an annual growth rate of 19.1%. Among all the Internet users, the proportion of those using mobile phones to access the Internet rose from 74.5% to 81.0%, up by 6.5% over 2012. Mobile phones constituted the largest Inter-accessing terminal for the Chinese Internet users. The ratio of Internet users using desktops and laptops dropped slightly to 69.7% and 44.1% by 0.8% and 1.8% respectively, compared with the figure of 2012.
The rural Internet users had accounted for 28.6% of the total in China, reaching 177 million, a growth of 21.01 million over 2012.
China had a total of 18.44 million domain names, which included 10.83 million “.CN” domain names, up by 44.2% compared with that of 2012, accounting for 58.7% of the total domain names in China.
The total number of websites in China rose to 3.20 million, a growth of 520,000, up by 19.4% compared with that of 2012.
As of the end of 2013, 93.1% of Chinese enterprises use computers in their work, 83.2% use the Internet, 79.6% use broadband. In the meanwhile, the proportion of online marketing and online purchase conducted by the Chinese companies was 23.5% and 26.8% respectively, while that of using the Internet to conduct marketing and advertisement activities was 20.9%.
Along with the gradual slowing-down of the growth rate of the overall scale of the Chinese Internet users, the Internet in China is changing from a quantity-focused development model to a quality-focused one. In other words, the main thematic mission of the Internet in China has shifted from “increasing its penetration rate to deepening its utilization levels”, which results from several factors, including changes in the policy environment. For instance, there has been increasing national policy support. In 2013, the State Council issued a policy paper “Opinions on Promoting Information Consumption to Expand Domestic Demand”, which demonstrates the importance of the Internet in the Chinese economy and society. Moreover, the Internet is increasingly connected with traditional economy, for instance, it has witnessed very good applications in shopping, logistics, payment, and even finance. Furthermore, the use of the Internet is gradually changing people’s lifestyle, exerting influence upon almost every aspect of their daily life, including clothing, food, housing and transportation, and so on.
Of course, the development, spread and application of Internet in China also face various problems, such as regional imbalance as well as that between urban and rural areas. Constrained by such elements as economic development, education and overall level of social Informationization, China’s Internet also takes on a unique feature, i.e. the Eastern part of China enjoys rapid Internet development while that of the Western part is slow, and the urban Internet penetration is high while that in the rural area is low. As of the end of 2009, Internet penetration in the Eastern part of China was 40.0%, while that of the Western part was 21.5%. In addition, there is also a big gap between urban and rural netizens, though the proportion of the latter has witnessed some increase from 27.8% in 2009 to 28.6% in 2013. Therefore, China still needs to make assiduous efforts to narrow the gap between different regions as well as that between urban and rural areas. The Chinese government will have to continue to promote Internet development and spread, thus making more people benefit from it.
1.3. China’s policies towards Internet development
China sees Internet as a major opportunity for its reform, opening-up, and modernization cause. The Chinese government has formulated a series of policies, which map out the blueprints for its Internet development, clarify the priorities for different stages of Internet development, and promote the process of social informationization.
1.3.1. From the very beginning of its development, China’s Internet has been closely linked to the Chinese economy, and was programmed and integrated into its macro economic development blueprints
For instance, as early as in 1993, China established the Joint Conference on National Economic Informationization, which shouldered the responsibility of taking a leading role in building the communication network on national public economic information.
In 1997, China drew up the National Informationization Program during the 9th Five-year Plan and Goals in 2010, which brought the Internet into the construction program of national information infrastructure and proposed to boost the process of national economic informationization by striving to develop the Internet industry.
Five years later in 2002, China promulgated its Specialized Informationization Planning Program during the 10th Five-year Plan on National Economic and Social Development, which set out the priorities for China’s informationization development as practicing e-government, re-energizing software industry, strengthening the development and utilization of information resources, and accelerating the development of e-commerce, etc.
In December 2002, the 16th National Congress of the CPC proposed to drive industrialization through informationization and promote informationization through industrialization, thus opening a new way of industrialization.
In November 2005, China laid down its National Informationization Development Strategy 2006-2020, which was a long-term or strategic document on informationization development, further clarified the priorities for China’s Internet development, and proposed to advance national economic informationization centered on readjusting economic structure and transforming the economic growth model. The document also proposed to practicing e-government with improving governance capacity at its core, and to carry forward social informization centering on building a harmonious society, etc.
In March 2006, the National People’s Congress (NPC) examined (deliberated) and approved the 11th Five-year Plan Outline on National Economic and Social Development, proposing to boost the merger of telecommunication network, broadcast network and Internet, and to build nextgeneration Internet and accelerate its commercial application.
In April 2007, a meeting of the CPC Political Bureau proposed to vigorously develop cyber culture industry and cyber culture information equipment manufacturing industry. In October 2007, the 17th National Congress of the CPC established the development strategy of “developing modern industry systems, strive to integrate Informationizationand industrialization, and promote the industries to transform from being big to being strong”.
In January 2010, the State Council decided to speed up the merger of the telecommunication network, broadcast network and Internet and to advance the development of information and cultural industries.
Under the Chinese government’s active promotion and explicit policy guidance, China’s Internet has been gradually on a road of comprehensive, sustainable and rapid development.
1.3.2. In addition to lending full policy support to Internet development, China also invests heavily in building Internet infrastructures
From 1997 to 2009, China invested 4,300 billion RMB in Internet infrastructure construction nationwide, and completed communication optical fiber cable covering the whole country with a total length of 8.267 million kilometers, among which 840,000 kilometers are long-distance optical cable line. By the end of 2009, China’s basic telecommunication companies possessed 136 million Internet broadband access (BBA) ports, with Internet international outlet bandwidth reaching 866,367 Mbps (million bits per second), having 7 log-in submarine cables and 20 land cables with a total volume of 1,600 Gb (Gigabyte).
99.3% of China’s villages and towns, and 91.5% of its administrative villages enjoy access to Internet, while 96.0% of villages and towns have access to bandwidth network.
In January 2009, the Chinese government began to provide the 3G mobile communication licenses. Now, the 3G networks have fundamentally covered the whole country. The mobile Internet is experiencing rapid development, while the Internet will benefit more people.
1.3.3. The Chinese government actively promotes the R&D of next-generation Internet (NGI)
During the late 1990s, China began its work on the NGI R&D and implemented a series of major science and technology programs such as “new-generation highly reliable network”. In 2001, the first Chinese NGI regional experimental network, near-field communication network (NFCNET), was established in Beijing. In 2003, China Next Generation Internet (CNGI) was officially launched and marked China’s entrance into a new stage of large-scale NGI R&D and construction. Now, China has established the world’s largest IPv6 excellence network, while the medium-and small-capacity IPv6 router technology, authentication technology on authentic IPv6 source address and NGI transitory technology used in the experimental network are taking a lead internationally. The technological programs proposed by China on the internationalization of domain names, IPv6 source address authentication, IPv4-IPv6 transitory technology have gained the approval of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and become part of the international Internet standards and protocols.
1.3.4. China practices a policy of managing cyber affairs in line with law, adhering to the principles of scientific and effective administration in its Internet governance
It also endeavors to improve its Internet governance system, which is a combination of laws and norms, administrative supervision, industry self-discipline, public monitoring and social education. Since 1994, China has promulgated a series of laws and regulations related to Internet administration. To be sure, China will continuously improve its Internet governance through practices. China also advocates the free and secure flow of Internet information, which are not only the two sides of the same coin, but also constitute an indispensable and interdependent whole. It sticks to combat cybercrimes in accordance with the laws, and opposes any form of cyber hacker behaviors, which is in line with the spirit of the Chinese laws and regulations.
1.4. Cyber legislation and Internet administration
There is much misunderstanding about China’s policies and practices on Internet governance and administration. In particular, after former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put forward the idea of cyber freedom in her Newseum speech in January 2010, there have been increasing accusations and criticisms against China in the media and news reports, though these allegations are inconsistent with the facts and sometimes prejudiced.
In fact, China adheres to the principle of scientific and effective Internet administration by law. After years of experience, China has formulated a system of Internet governance with different layers and types of laws and regulations in place. Of course, these laws and regulations conform to the specific national conditions in China. Different from some countries’ one-sided emphasis on cyber freedom, China advocates the free and secure flow of information in cyberspace, which is just like the two wings of a bird.
Along with the rapid development and changes of ICTs, China also tries to keep with the times in its cyber legislation and Internet administration. On the one hand, it sometimes revises the established laws and regulations to make them fit the new ICT environment. On the other hand, the legislative body of China also makes new laws and regulations to tackle the new problems and new phenomena brought about by the Internet and ever-changing ICTs, in particular, to deal with those negative impacts upon the political, economic, social and cultural life of the Chinese people.
1.4.1. Basic principles and practices of Internet administration in China
According to the White Book on the Internet in China, the basic goals of China’s Internet administration are: to promote general and hassle-free Internet accessibility, and sustainable and healthy development, guarantee citizens’ freedom of speech online, regulate the order of Internet
information transmission, promote the positive and effective application of the Internet, create a market environment for fair competition, safeguard the citizens’ rights and interests vested in the Constitution and law, and ensure safety for Internet information and state security.
In practice, China adheres to the principle of scientific and effective Internet administration by law. In general, China has formulated an effective and overall system of Internet administration, which is a combination of laws and regulations, administrative supervision, self-regulation, technical protection, public supervision and social education. In addition, China also strives to improve its Internet administration system constantly.
1.4.1.1. Laws and regulations on Internet administration
In line with the spirit of regulating the Internet by law, China has enacted a series of laws and regulations concerning Internet administration since 1994. They include:
and so on……
In addition, relevant provisions of other laws are also applicable in the case of Internet administration, such as:
and so on……
These laws and regulations involve basic Internet resource management, information transmission regulation, information security guarantee and other key aspects. On the whole, they define the responsibilities and obligations of basic telecommunication business operators, Internet access service providers, Internet information service providers, government administrative organs, Internet users and other related bodies.
1.4.1.2. The leading role of the Chinese government in Internet administration
The Chinese government plays a leading role in Internet administration. In accordance with their statutory duties, relevant government bodies are responsible for safeguarding Chinese citizens’ rights and interests, public interests and state security by law. This is also true with the cyber field. Of course, as far as the Internet is concerned, there is a division of labor among these different governmental organs.
For example, National telecommunications administration departments are responsible for the administration of the Internet industry, including the administration of basic resources of the Internet, such as domain names and IP addresses within China.
There is a slight administrative difference between commercial and non-commercial Internet information services in China. According to the Measures on the Administration of Internet Information Services (2000), China carries out a licensing system for commercial Internet information services and a registration system for noncommercial Internet information services respectively.
In line with the above Measures, the publication, education, health and other administrative departments implement licensing systems for “Internet information services concerning press, publication, education, medical care, medicines and medical instruments”.
Public security organs and other state law-enforcement agencies bear the responsibility for Internet security supervision and administration, and investigate and punish all types of network crimes.
1.4.1.3. Industry self-regulation
China advocates industry self-regulation and public supervision. The practice of self-regulation by the industry is a unique feature in China’s Internet governance and administration. In this regard, some professional organizations, such as the Internet Society of China (ISC), play a leading role.
Founded in May 2001, ISC is a national organization of the Internet industry with a purpose of serving the development of the Internet industry, netizens and governmental decisions. Since its foundation, the ISC has issued a series of self-disciplinary regulations, which greatly promote the healthy development of the Internet in China. These self-disciplinary regulations include:
and so on……
These public pledges of self-regulation do not have legally binding power as it is up to the participants to abide by the rules, carry forward good practices while resisting and shunning away from the bad ones. Though some Western media reports are rather caustic about this practice of self-regulation, these self-disciplinary pledges do have a kind of soft power and play a role in setting examples of good practices and shaping a clean, sound, and healthy Internet environment in China. Thus, these public pledges of selfregulation constitute a complement to the legally binding laws and regulations. For example, through the practice of self-regulatory pledges, the ISC has made unremitting efforts in helping to counter spam, reducing the global spam percentage of Chinese e-mails from 23% in 2002 to 4.1% in 2009.
1.4.1.4. Public supervision through special websites
With a view to strengthening public supervision of Internet services and maintaining a clean and healthy Internet environment, China has established a lot of public reporting and reception organizations since 2004. They include:
and so on……
In January 2010, China also issued the Measures for Encouraging the Reporting of Pornographic and Vulgar Information on the Internet and Mobile Media. In the future, these Internet industry self-disciplinary organizations will continue to play their due role in safeguarding Internet security. The Chinese government will also further support their work in this regard and protect the public’s legitimate rights to online reporting of illegal information and acts.
Moreover, China also adheres to rational and scientific law-making, and reserves space for Internet development. As the ICTs change quickly, and new cyber risks and threats are also in constant flux, the governments in the world will always be under some kind of pressure for keeping up with these changes in their cyber legislations, in order to make their laws and regulations relevant and to better protect people’s interests in cyberspace. China will also revise old laws and regulations on Internet governance and enact new ones in line with the changing landscape of the ICTs and cyber risks.
1.4.2. Guaranteeing the free and secure flow of information in cyberspace
As mentioned above, China advocates the free and secure flow of information in cyberspace. In fact, in the Chinese philosophy, cyber freedom and cybersecurity are interwoven with and complementary to each other. Without security, the free flow of information will lose its meaning as it might be obtained and even abused by anyone else. In a similar vein, without the free flow of information, the secure flow of information will also lose its value, because, to keep the information flow secure, it will be subject to certain security measures that might undermine its availability to a wide audience. Though there is neither absolute cyber freedom nor absolute cybersecurity in cyberspace, an appropriate balance between the two have to be vigorously sought. This is what China tries to do in its cyber policies, in particular, in its cyber legislations.
1.4.2.1. Guaranteeing Citizens’ Freedom of Speech on the Internet
The White Book on the Internet in China states that the Internet has experienced full-scope application in the news communication field of China. The Chinese government encourages and supports the development of Internet news communication undertakings, provides the public with a full range of news, and at the same time guarantees the citizens’ freedom of speech on the Internet as well as the public’s right to know, to participate, to be heard and to oversee in accordance with the law.
1.4.2.1.1. Constitutional guarantee
Accordingly, Chinese citizens fully enjoy freedom of speech on the Internet. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China confers on Chinese citizens the right to free speech. Therefore, with their right to freedom of speech on the Internet protected by the law, they can voice their opinions in various ways on the Internet. One of the most prominent features of China’s Internet development is the vigorous online exchanges of ideas.
For example, the huge quantity of BBS posts and blog articles is far beyond that of any other country in the world. In recent years, such newly-emerging online services as blog, micro-blog, video-sharing and social networking websites are developing rapidly in China and provide greater convenience for Chinese citizens to communicate online. Now, new Internet applications and new online services, including online finance, big data and cloud computing, have provided a broader scope for people to express their opinions.
1.4.2.1.2. Public supervision via the Internet
The Chinese government has also actively created conditions for the people to supervise the government, and attaches great importance to the Internet’s role in supervision. To put it simply, the Internet’s role in supervision has been brought into full play in China.
In order to facilitate the public’s reporting of corrupt and degenerate officials and suchlike, the central discipline inspection and supervision authorities, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) and other relevant bodies have set up informant websites. The informant website of the Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Ministry of Supervision, and the website of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention are playing an important role in preventing and punishing corruption and degeneration among officials.
1.4.2.1.3. CCDI website for public supervision
Now, the Chinese government is actively using the practice of online reporting to fight against corruption, which has greatly facilitated the government’s efforts in cracking down corrupt practices and officials. For example, CCDI established and opened a website7 in September 2013 designed to publish information, elaborate policies, solicit public opinion, and promote anti-corruption efforts through online reporting. It has a special website8 for online reporting of corrupt practices and officials. The CCDI website also has an interactive column, which contains online interviews and a message board. In particular, the interactive column will pose one question per month to solicit visitors’ opinions on certain issues. So far, for example, they include:
These questions have always been followed by numerous messages left by the visitors to the website, which greatly facilitate the anti-corruption efforts of the Chinese governments.
In addition, other Chinese governmental departments have also set up their own website for online reporting. For instance, the Central Organization Department of the CPC has established a 12380 online reporting website9, which is also a kind of online supervision over governmental officials.
On November 21, 2013, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China created official accounts on Sina Weibo and WeChat, two of the country’s leading social media tools, marking its efforts to promote judicial transparency. A statement from the SPC website said the new media accounts signal the SPC’s steps to boost openness, value public opinions and widen the channel for the masses to oversee judicial authorities, which are in line with the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held in November 2013. The Chinese Netizens hailed it as “a milestone for China’s rule of law” in the comments posted on the court’s micro-blog account.
The above efforts and practices reflect not only the increasing openness and transparency of the Chinese government in its daily work, but also its willingness to solicit good opinions and advice from the people, much larger in number than that of governmental officials, to improve its daily work and even work styles. Now, the opinions expressed by the public online are receiving unprecedented attention. In other words, the Internet has become a new channel for the Chinese government to get to know the people’s situation and amass the public’s wisdom, and consequently exercise governance for the people and improve its work.
To quote the White Book on the Internet in China, the Internet provides unprecedented convenience and a direct channel for the people to exercise their right to know, to participate, to be heard and to oversee, and is playing an increasingly important role in helping the government get to know the people’s wishes, meet their needs and safeguard their interests. In a word, the Chinese government is determined to unswervingly safeguard the freedom of speech on the Internet enjoyed by Chinese citizens in accordance with the law.
1.4.2.1.4. Protecting citizens’ online privacy
As more cases of Internet users’ information being leaked are emerging, the protection of citizens’ online privacy is becoming high on the Chinese government’s agenda, because it is closely connected with the people’s sense of security and confidence in the Internet. In fact, there are already provisions in the existing Chinese laws and relevant regulations.
For instance, the Decision of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee on Guarding Internet Security (2000) stipulates that illegal interception, tampering with or deletion of others’ e-mails or other data and infringement upon citizens’ freedom and privacy of correspondence that constitutes a crime shall be investigated for criminal liability in line with the Criminal Law.
Moreover, according to the self-disciplinary public pledges of the Internet industry (2002), Internet service providers are responsible for protecting users’ privacy. The providers shall publish their relevant privacy protection commitment when providing services, provide reporting and reception channels for privacy infringement and take effective measures to protect users’ privacy.
Of course, the Chinese government will always improve relevant legislation and Internet corporate service regulations, in order to steadily enhance online privacy protection systems.
