China Media Project’s David Bandurski notes comments on the need for control and order online by the director of China’s State Internet Information Office at a World Economic Forum session in Tianjin on Tuesday.
“Freedom and order are twin sisters, and they must live together,” said Lu Wei, according to a report from the official Xinhua News Agency. “The same principle applies to security. So we must have a public order [internationally]. And this public order cannot impact any particular local order.”
Lu Wei, a former municipal propaganda minister for Beijing, has a reputation in China as a hard-liner bent on strengthening control over the internet, and particularly social media. Many Chinese journalists attribute China’s 2013 crackdown on “Big V” users on Sina Weibo to Lu. [Source]
CMP has translated Xinhua’s full account of Lu’s remarks, including comments on the conditions for foreign internet companies’ operation in China:
[…] What we cannot permit, [said Lu], is the taking advantage of China’s market, of profiting from Chinese money, but doing damage to China. This will absolutely not be permitted. It is unacceptable to harm China’s interests, to harm China’s security, or to harm the interests of China’s consumers. Assuming respect for this bottom line any internet company is welcome in China. [Source]
See more on China’s “neo-authoritarian” internet governance and its possible spread, and on its longstanding suspicion of foreign technology firms, via CDT.
