City Beat | Hong Kong faces challenge in helping mainland China become an internet superpower
It’s not enough to have Wi-fi access everywhere, the city must become more welcoming in terms of both business hardware and social environment
Love it or hate it, the digital age is here and it’s a challenge for Beijing as the country’s tenacious internet users test the limits of the central government’s tolerance for the free flow of information and opinion.
This poses an important question for Hong Kong as to what it means for the city if it wants to be included in the country’s fast-growing internet economy, which operates under tighter administrative rules than people here are accustomed to.
In that regard, the high-level conference last week on cybersecurity and information technology chaired by President Xi Jinping was not one to miss.
Speaking to senior officials in charge of cyber technology development, top internet engineers, influential academics in media studies and internet titans such as Jack Ma of Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, Xi urged officials at all levels to go online more often to feel the pulse of the people, adding that it was “incredible” the country’s netizen population exceeded 700 million. But at the same time, he also stressed the need to “strengthen cyber defence and deterrence capabilities”.
That is the dilemma for the country: after decades of fast growth, its economy has entered a “new normal”, which is actually a slowdown.
The central government has embraced e-commerce and the internet economy as the major new engine to drive the country’s future development. But the proliferation of internet platforms also means Beijing has to deal with the increasing threat of cyberattacks at home and abroad. It will have to filter and control the influx of information – good, bad or damaging in the wary eyes of the people in power at Zhongnanhai.