Xi Yanchun:

Mr. Chen Zhemin, thank you for your introduction. Now, the floor is open for questions. As usual, please identify the news organization you represent before asking your question. 

CCTV:

My question is for Mr. Liu. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has often noted that without cybersecurity, there will be no national security. My question is, what progress has China made on cybersecurity in recent years? What's the current cybersecurity situation in China? And what new measures will we take next? Thank you. 

Liu Liehong:

Thank you for your question. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has given high priority to cybersecurity work. A series of new thoughts, theories, judgements and strategies have been put forward, together forming General Secretary Xi Jinping's important thinking on our national cyber development strategy, which provides basic guidance and strong momentum to China's cybersecurity work. Guided by his thoughts, great progress has been made in China's cybersecurity development. A quasi-system framework of laws, regulations and policies has been developed based on the central role of the Cybersecurity Law. The national cybersecurity system has been improved, cybersecurity capacity and level have been upgraded, which play an important role in safeguarding national security and socio-economic development.  

As to the risks, with the upgrading of information technology, the influence and driving force of the Internet have increased remarkably vis-a-vis China's socio-economic development. This also brings about increasing risks and challenges. Cyber security threats and risks grow day by day; crimes including the underground black industry and telecom fraud occur frequently; problems such as data-insecurity and privacy infringement have become more evident. Organized and intensified cyber attacks targeting critical information infrastructures have become more explicit. Security challenges, both in cyberspace and in the real world, are now intertwined, with cyber-insecurity impacting the real world and security issues in the real world spreading to cyberspace. Cybersecurity concerns are gradually becoming one of the major strategic issues which affect national security, social stability and people's vital interests.

In order to properly carry out the work on cybersecurity, we must thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important thoughts on building China into a cyber power, which entails commitments in the following five areas:

First, we should improve data security management and private information protection. This means we should expedite the issuance of regulations and standards in this area, including data security regulations and evaluation standards for the overseas security of private information. The illegal or delinquent collection and use of private information by various applications will be targeted using a thorough approach. Illegal acts and criminal activities relating to national big data resources and private information will be cracked down on in accordance with the law. 

Second, we should reinforce the protection of critical cyber infrastructure. This means we should speed up the issuance of regulations on the protection of critical cyber infrastructure, hold operators responsible for their main responsibilities, as well as supervisors for their duty to supervise, plan for overall cybersecurity inspection, enhance the situational awareness of cybersecurity, and improve the capabilities of monitoring, early warning and organizing emergency response for situations involving cybersecurity. 

Third, we should incubate and facilitate the growth of cybersecurity technology industry. We are improving the planning and overall layout of cybersecurity technology industry, perfecting policies and measures to support the development of cybersecurity technology industry, and building a list of cybersecurity enterprises that can compete internationally. 

Fourth, we should plan on cultivating cybersecurity talents for the long term. This means we should increase efforts to develop cybersecurity-related educational disciplines, carefully implement the demonstration projects for building top-class cybersecurity schools, accelerate the construction of national bases for innovation and cybersecurity talents. We need to do this to shape a healthy eco-system for talent incubation, technological innovation and industrial development. 

Fifth, we should actively promote the global governance of cyberspace. This means we should, under the guidance of the "four principles" to promote the transformation of the global internet governance system and the "five proposals" to build a community of shared future in cyberspace, both proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, deepen practical cooperation with different countries and concerned international organizations, explore cybersecurity issues through dialogues and interactive activities, join hands to tackle the threats and challenges facing cybersecurity, and jointly build the community of shared future in cyberspace.

Thank you.