As reported by Qian Long Web Beijing, the city of Beijing just concluded a week-long, first-ever National Cyberspace Public Awareness Week, with the theme Encourage the Spirit of Rule of Law, Build a Harmonious Internet somewhat mixing the ideologies of Xi (rule of law) and Hu (“harmony”) at the same time.
Since 2003, when Hu became a “full” PRC leader (after being president), the Internet has, except for a brief time at the start of his presidency, been increasingly ruled by a myriad of regulations. Xi, always in favour of rule of law (or rule by law?), has from the very start of his presidency pointed out that “the Internet is not a place where the rule does not apply”.
Officialspeak leaders included the head of the Chinese Public Security Ministry’s Internet Security Bureau, Gu Jianguo, who pointed out in his speech that “the space of the Internet is a space of sovereignty” (the concept of national sovereignty on the Internet was a major issue of content in the recent Wuzhen summit on the Internet in China — a concept that has become quite controversial).
But apart from making controversial claims on “Internet sovereignty”, the week of Internet security public awareness also made sense for commoners, including how to detect and defeat con artists, human / baby trafficking, “Internet rumours”, pornography, and hackers.
In late April 2014, the city of Beijing itself organised a Capital Cybersecurity Day. These series of events might actually make more sense if porn was specifically targeted — the contents of (Chinese language) text ads on some news sites remains highly suggestive and one cannot wonder why these cannot be targeted for removal!
