Lead: China is shaping global internet governance to be more inclusive and cooperative, promoting multilateral reforms that prioritize broad participation, digital equity, and cybersecurity as part of a shared future for all nations.
The 2025 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit concluded successfully this weekend in the historic water town of Wuzhen in the city of Jiaxing, east China's Zhejiang province. This year's event drew more than 1,600 participants from over 130 countries and regions.
Ten years since Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed building a community with a shared future in cyberspace, the summit has evolved into a key forum for promoting international cooperation on shaping an open, stable and secure multilateral system of global internet governance.
Relatedly, behind the rapid growth of China's digital economy is an effective domestic internet governance framework that has made connectivity more inclusive and far-reaching. As of June 2025, China had more than 1.12 billion internet users, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. The number of internet users aged 60 and above reached 161 million and, while those who lived in rural areas totaled 322 million.
Internet penetration in China has risen to about 80%, with rural connectivity exceeding 69% and 5G services covering more than 90% of administrative villages across the country's vast hinterlands. This expansion has helped narrow the rural-urban digital divide, empowering communities in remote areas to harness the benefits of technology.
Thanks to China's widespread 5G rollout in rural areas, farmers now use livestreaming to promote and sell their products directly to online consumers. This digital transformation has not only fueled business growth but also revitalized rural economies, fostering new models of digital cultural tourism and creating digital employment opportunities.
China's concept of jointly building a community with a shared future in cyberspace draws inspiration from its domestic achievements and builds on the four principles and five proposals President Xi introduced at the 2015 WIC. Rather than advancing a Chinese model of internet governance, it envisions a multilateral approach to shaping the global digital order.
Its key priorities include speeding up the development of international internet infrastructure, promoting online cultural exchanges and mutual learning, enhancing cybersecurity, fostering ethical growth in artificial intelligence, and bridging the digital divide. Together, these efforts underscore a commitment to cooperative—rather than unilateral—reform of global internet governance. The core goal is inclusive internet development and broad participation in international digital governance institutions to achieve shared development, common security, joint governance and mutual benefit.
As part of its efforts to build a resilient global internet governance system, China has been actively engaged with U.N.-led platforms such as the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and has deepened cooperation with U.N. specialized agencies on cyber affairs. For several years, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) have cohosted the Wuzhen Summit, underscoring Beijing's role in encouraging multilateral participation to shape a robust and equitable framework for universal cyberspace governance.
China's contributions at the IGF focus on establishing a responsible governance framework and exploring common governance practices to achieve co-governance and mutual benefits. Established in 2020, the China IGF — certified by the U.N. IGF — encourages China's domestic internet community to share its governance practices with international counterparts and contribute to the development of global internet governance.
China has attached importance to expansion of internet access across the world. Although global internet use has surged over the years, yet about 2.6 billion people — roughly one-third of the world's population — remain in digital darkness, highlighting a persistent digital divide. To address the challenge, China has urged the international community to work together to expand internet infrastructure in developing countries.
Beijing has, in particular, helped expand universal and affordable internet access in the least developed countries, demonstrating its commitment to reducing the digital divide and showing how technology can help alleviate poverty. China-ITU projects such as Digital Uganda and events like the WIC are accelerating Africa's digital transformation and boosting its ability to fight poverty through the deployment of digital technology.
Since its launch by China in 2017, the Digital Silk Road (DSR) has supported the development of digital infrastructure in several countries, improving telecommunications networks, AI capacity, cloud computing, e-commerce, mobile payment systems, surveillance technology, smart cities and other high-tech fields.
Through the DSR initiative, nations across Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia have acquired affordable, high-quality technology to expand wireless and broadband coverage. The Fiber-to-the-Home project in Indonesia and the first phase of Johor Data Center in Malaysia, both involving Chinese firms, illustrate the DSR's global impact.
China's efforts to jointly develop the DSR and share the benefits of its digital growth, including internet access, have been lauded by leading international organizations such as the WIPO. The capability and price competitiveness of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek further empower partner countries to develop their own reliable AI tools, advancing technological self-reliance and innovation-driven digital growth.
China has also given priority to building a secure and stable cyberspace and jointly enhancing cybersecurity. It has deepened cooperation with other countries and international organizations on data security, information protection and combating cybercrime and cyberterrorism. In addition, China has led or participated in the formulation of more than 50 international standards on cybersecurity, playing a constructive role in multilateral cybersecurity processes.
Beijing's global initiatives on data security and on AI governance, along with cooperation with 100 countries and regional organizations to implement these initiatives, underscore its commitment to promoting multilateralism and safeguarding personal privacy and global data security. As a responsible international stakeholder, China has also supported the formulation of a global convention against cybercrime within the U.N. framework, carrying out joint operations with multilateral mechanisms such as Interpol, BRICS and the ASEAN Regional Forum.
While AI offers substantial benefits, it also presents ethical challenges, including potential abuses that could undermine human dignity, equality, and social stability. To prevent misuse and foster responsible AI development, China has worked at the multilateral level to build consensus on ethical guidelines and norms — focusing on algorithmic bias, data privacy, and security risks. It has also taken a series of measures to help raise global standards for ethical AI development.
All these efforts and initiatives show that China's inclusive approach to digital governance contributes substantially to reforming and fostering multilateral participation in global internet governance frameworks — helping address pressing challenges such as the digital divide, cybersecurity and unregulated AI development.
However, some Westerners, suspicious of whatever China does in the world, are going all out to fan the so-called "China threat", describing China's efforts above as aimed at controlling global internet governance and winning the cyberwar.
Amid a U.S. retreat from key multilateral commitments — including the rejection of major global goals like poverty eradication, climate change mitigation and universal access to clean water and sanitation — framing Beijing's role in international internet affairs as a threat overlooks the core of China's long-term vision, reducing such analysis to a short-sighted narrative of great-power rivalry in the digital realm.
Rather than seeking control over international cyberspace, Beijing has advanced a multilateral strategy aimed at reforming internet governance mechanisms to strengthen cyber development capacity in developing countries, bridge the digital divide, and help implement the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Like in other areas, China's involvement in the global and regional digital initiatives is not about rewriting the rules of the international order. Instead, it reflects Beijing's commitment to multilateral reform and the advancement of universal internet governance — making it more inclusive, secure and equitable as part of its people-oriented push to build a community with a shared future in cyberspace.
*My article that first appeared in China Diplomacy in the New Era