Damaging cooperation

It is well known that the U.S. PRISM surveillance scandal has had a great impact on international cyber space development. One direct consequence is that countries have realized the urgency to efficiently guarantee their rights in cyber space. They have opposed the United States' dominance in cyber affairs, demanding shared governance of the Internet. They have also called for reforms of the Internet, such as the globalization of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In this context, the United States was forced to adjust its policies, and agreed to shift responsibility for overseeing the ICANN to "the global multistakeholder community." The international community believes that the coming two years will be a key period for remapping territory in the cyber world.

Currently, China is actively involved in the reform of cyber space governance. It has made suggestions at international events and its ideas have been accepted by more and more countries. Identifying with China's stance, many countries appeal to let international organizations with greater legitimacy, like the UN, be responsible for international Internet-related issues, so as to promote justice and fairness in the cyber world. Now China has become a significant player in cyber space governance reform, which Washington views as a threat. By making accusations against the so-called spies from the Chinese military, the United States most likely intended to damage the Chinese Government's reputation, distract its focus, and disrupt China's plan to participate in global Internet affairs.

However, haste generally makes waste. Washington is hurrying to test Beijing's reacting mechanism, but has instead destroyed a bilateral cooperative mechanism, into which they have invested an enormous amount of time and energy. Furthermore, by ignoring international principles and stirring conflicts, it will cause damage to international cooperation over cyber space.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for building a China-U.S. "new-type major-power relationship" characterized by non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation during a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama in June 2013. If the United States continues to act the way it has, much greater efforts will be necessary to extend such a relationship into cyber space.

The author is deputy director of the Institute of Information and Social Development Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations

U.S. Record of Global Surveillance

A Chinese Internet information body complained of "unscrupulous" surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies over the rest of the world and called for an immediate cessation of the practice in a report issued on May 26. The document, titled The United States' Global Surveillance Record, said the U.S. secret surveillance activities directed against China and other nations include:

—Collecting nearly 5 billion mobile phone call records across the globe every day;

—Tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone for more than 10 years;

—Plugging into the main communication networks between Yahoo's and Google's overseas data centers, and stealing the data of hundreds of millions of customers;

—Monitoring cellphone apps for years and grabbing private data;

—Waging large-scale cyber attacks against China, with both Chinese leaders and the telecom giant Huawei as targets.

(Source: Xinhua News Agency)

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