China’s internet conference to celebrate 30 years of connectivity amid industry challenges
- The China Internet Conference will cover numerous topics including AI and data security as tech companies grapple with more limited access to global markets
China’s government-backed internet conference is commemorating 30 years of online access in the country this year, as Beijing seeks to revive growth in the sector amid numerous economic pressures.
The three-day China Internet Conference (CIC) hosted by the Internet Society of China, a government-backed industry association, kicks off on Tuesday in Beijing. It is set to showcase the country’s achievements as the world’s largest internet market, with about 1 billion users, and to explore new opportunities for development, according to the agenda published to the event’s website.
Three decades on from the launch of China’s first internet connection, the country is now grappling with an intensifying technology rivalry with the US. As China’s tech sector faces challenges such as limited access to advanced chips and US venture capital, the internet industry is still recovering from a two-year crackdown in the country that began at the end of 2020.
A major theme of this year’s CIC is looking back at internet development since the country was brought online on April 20, 1994. That 64 kilobit-per-second line from the National Computing and Networking Facility of China was connected to the network of Sprint, a US telecoms firm, officially marking the country’s integration with the global internet.