The Fourth World Internet Conference was held in Wuzhen, near Shanghai in Zhejiang province, from December 3 till 5. It is an annual gathering of mainly Chinese internet officials and internet company executives as well as officials from developing countries. The theme of the conference was “Developing Digital Economy for Openness and Shared Benefits – Building a Community of Common Future in Cyberspace”.

The previous three conferences in 2014, 2015 and 2016 were not attended by heavyweight U.S. tech executives, but this year, the CEOs of Apple and Google, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, attended the conference. Cook told the event that “the theme of this conference is a vision we at Apple share” adding that Apple “is proud to have worked alongside many of our partners in China to help build a community that will join a common future in cyberspace”. Google’s Pichai told delegates that “a lot of work Google does is to help Chinese companies. Many small and medium-sized businesses in China take advantages of Google to get their products to many other countries outside of China.” Cook was a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony, speaking after Wang Huning, the newly promoted Politburo Standing Committee Member in charge of ideology. One promising initiative is the digital Silk Road: accelerating internet infrastructure to develop artificial intelligence, big data and sharing economy, said Luigi Gambardella, President of ChinaEU, a non-profit organization promoting digital and internet cooperation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory message to the conference that China hopes to encourage countries around the world “to take a ride on the express train of internet and digital economic development”. Xi said China hopes to work with the international community to respect cyberspace sovereignty and carry forward the spirit of partnership to commonly advance development, safeguard security, participate in governance, and share the benefits. “China’s door to the world will never close, but will only open wider,” he said. Over 1,500 guests from more than 80 countries and regions attended the conference.

China had 751 million internet users by the end of June of this year, or one-fifth of world’s total, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. It is home to two of the world’s top 10 technology firms by market capitalization – New York-listed Alibaba Group and Hong Kong-listed Tencent. However, the websites of Google, Facebook and Twitter, among others, are still banned in China.