Huang Kunming, head of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and a member of the CCP Politburo, delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Internet Conference.

Lianhe Zaobao [the largest Singapore-based Chinese-language newspaper] reported that, without specifying which country he was referring to, Huang was criticizing the United States. He stated, “Some countries have used national security as an excuse and have restricted and attacked other countries and enterprises. This has increased the uncertainty and even the antagonism in cyberspace.”

Huang warned, “The Cold War and zero-sum game thinking have hindered exchanges in cyberspace. Cyber hegemony and bullying behavior in cyberspace have jeopardized the mutual trust in Internet space.”

This is the second year for Huang to attend the opening ceremony of the World Internet Conference. In his speech last year, he called for “effectively safeguarding the right to development, participation, and governance of all countries in cyberspace.” This year, he took a tougher, offensive stance and emphasized the rationality of China’s development of a new generation of Internet technology to seek more space for China’s 5G technology in the international communities.

Although the World Internet Conference this year is not getting as much attention as it did in previous years, it remains an important platform for China to declare its cyber position and compete for the right to speak on global Internet space. In his keynote speech, Huang Kunming reiterated China’s vision of promoting China from a “big cyber player” to a “major cyber power.”

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, October 21, 2019
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20191021-998663

Jin Canrong, a scholar at Renmin University of China, spoke at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum. He stated that China and the United States should show transparency to each other and that both countries ought to avoid a hot war. Jin said, “China has the ability to destroy the United States.”  He said that the U.S. can destroy China ten times but China need only destroy the U.S. once. The Beijing Xiangshan Forum was an international event that the Chinese military hosted. Jin made the above remarks when the Taiwan based Central News Agency interviewed him.

Jin added that many Chinese scholars today hope to return to the “keeping a low profile” foreign policy from the Deng Xiaoping’s era, believing that with a continuation of that policy, China will attract little attention and there will be no problems (between the two countries). Jin refuted the idea as “being very naïve.” “Keeping a low profile would lead Americans to think it is deception.” If Deng Xiaoping were still alive, Jin believes Deng will also change his strategic thinking because Deng’s strategy came out of “practice.” It is useless even if the policy has not changed. Anyway, China is too strong to hide it.

Jin said that China and the U.S. should also avoid a cold war, which is no good for either side. The game played between the two powers needs to be transparent. Therefore, it was necessary to show some strength during the recent military parade so as to avoid miscalculations by the hostile parties. After all, in  history, “miscalculations” caused many wars.

Source: Central News Agency, October 21, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201910210268.aspx