This week ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé and Vice President for Asia Kuek Yu Chuang visited Beijing, the capital city of my country, during the Spring Festival of Chinese lunar new year of horse.
The three-day trip was packed and fruitful. We had meetings with top Chinese government officials: Mr. Lu Wei, Minister of State Internet Information Office (SIIO), Mr. Wang Feng, Vice Minister of State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform (SCOPSR), and Mr. Zhang Feng, Chief Engineer of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
Fadi met with Mr. Lu Wei, Minister of State Internet Information Office
We also had very constructive dialogues with Madam Cao Shumin, President of China Academy of Telecommunication Research (CATR), Dr. Wu Hequan, President of Internet Society of China and Dr. Tan Tieniu, Deputy Secretary-General of China Academy of Sciences (CAS). In addition, we met with our old friends and partners in China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) and China Organizational Name Administration Center (CONAC). On the last day of his visit, Fadi had a breakfast meeting with our community stakeholders and had deep discussion on how ICANN can better engage the Asia-Pacific and China.
From left to right: Lu Wei, Secretary General, ISC, Gao Xinmin, Vice President, ISC, Wu Hequan, President, ISC, Fadi Chehadé, President and CEO, ICANN, Kuek Yu Chuang, Vice President for Global Stakeholder Engagement for Asia, ICANN, Song Zheng, Head of China, ICANN
Our discussions here covered many areas such as Internet Governance, New gTLD Program, IPv6 deployment, IDNs, internationalization and localization of ICANN, the next-step cooperation with major Chinese stakeholders, and supporting Chinese community’s future participation of ICANN, etc. No doubt these frank and valuable discussions would help strengthen our partnership with the Chinese Internet community.
Breakfast meeting with our community stakeholders in China
During his engagement in Beijing, Fadi especially stressed the importance of keeping one single global Internet. Allowing the Internet to fragment would negatively impact the global economy and undermine public interests. What makes the Internet “one” is the logical layer including names, numbers and protocol parameters, he said. It is imperative that this logical layer remains stable and intact. His opinions were welcomed and supported by the stakeholders we engaged with.
With its 618 million strong Internet user population and fast-evolving Internet industry, China is already a major driving force of the global internet, Fadi noted. This successful trip reaffirmed ICANN’s commitment to Chinese stakeholders.