Xi: Harness web to ensure security

President Xi Jinping urged officials at all levels to increase their familiarity with the internet and improve their skills in using technology to better safeguard China's cyberspace sovereignty and security.

Information technology is developing rapidly worldwide and penetrating into all aspects of people's lives, and although China has made progress in developing IT and ensuring cybersecurity, it still lags far behind international levels, Xi said at a meeting attended by members of China's decision-making political bureau on Sunday.

During the meeting, Wei Shaojun, a professor at Tsinghua University's Institute of Microelectronics, gave a lecture on facilitating the development of internet technology and improving management of the web.

Xi also called for more efforts in developing core technologies, ensuring safety of key information infrastructure and improving the existing internet governance. More investment should be poured into related infrastructure development and promoting intensified integration between internet and traditional industries, he said.

Government departments should have a better internet mentality and should use the web for better policymaking, more precise social governance and more effective public service, Xi said.

Li Yuxiao, a professor of internet management and legal research at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said it is important that officials increase their familiarity with the internet and how it works so that they can make related policies and supervise cyberspace effectively.

"Officials should be capable of identifying risks, and they should have the ability to handle emergencies on cyberspace," he said. "With the rapid development of internet technology, the requirements for officials is becoming higher and higher."

Shen Yi, deputy chief of Fudan University's Cyberspace Governance Research Center, said officials must adopt the right methods to ensure sovereignty and security.

"Cyberspace is different from the tangible world. It's more inclusive, complex and interactive," he said. "Officials must be familiar with the law of the internet, how it works, so that they can take the right approach."