THE CHINESE MODEL OF CYBER SOVEREIGNTY: MAIN PRINCIPLES AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

THE CHINESE MODEL OF CYBER SOVEREIGNTY: MAIN PRINCIPLES AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

The invention of the internet by a group of engineers in the United States of America in the late 1990s caused enormous changes in people's lives and brought some major debates in the international arena. Undoubtedly, one of the most important of these debates was what should be the scope and limits of states' sovereignty in cyberspace that emerged with the use of the internet. This issue caused a serious disagreement between the US with a techno-optimistic approach, and authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran. While the countries adopting the techno-optimistic view opposed the hegemony of the states in cyberspace, authoritarian states including China argued that cyberspace is a reflection of the physical territory of the state and that states should have full sovereignty in cyberspace. In this context, this article explains China's position in this debate through the explanation of the existence, development, and implementation of China's concept of cyber sovereignty.

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