World Internet Development Report 2021: Blue Book for World Internet Conference 981199322X, 9789811993220

Table of contents :
Preface
Contents
1 Overview
1.1 World Internet Development in 2021
1.1.1 The Construction of Network Infrastructure Accelerates, with the Investment to Network Infrastructure Increased
1.1.2 The Innovation on Digital Technology Continues to Advance, with Consensus on Technology Governance
1.1.3 Global Digital Economy Grows Against Headwinds and the Layout of Key Fields Accelerates
1.1.4 The Construction of Digital Government Steadily Progresses, with Emphasis on Collaboration in Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic
1.1.5 Internet Media Convergence Forms a Trend and Algorithmic Regulation Intensifies
1.1.6 Cybersecurity Risks Keep Rising, and Supply-Chain Security and Data Security Arouse Widespread Concern
1.1.7 The Rule-of-Law Construction in Cyberspace Incessantly Accelerates and Antitrust Regulation Continuously Intensifies
1.1.8 International Competition on Digital Rule-Making Is Fierce and International Order in Cyberspace Is Rapidly Reshaped
1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries
1.2.1 Index Construction
1.2.2 GIDI System
1.2.3 Analysis of Results
1.3 Internet Development in Representative Countries and Regions
1.3.1 The United States Continues to Take the Lead in the World in Internet Comprehensive Strength
1.3.2 Internet Development in China Comes to the Stage of Enhancing Quality and Improving Efficiency
1.3.3 The United Kingdom Takes the Lead in Cybersecurity Strength
1.3.4 Japan Accelerates the Construction of Digital Society
1.3.5 Internet Application in India Develops Rapidly
1.3.6 Russia Makes Steady Progress in Internet Development
1.3.7 Vietnam Sees Fast Development of Internet Economy
1.3.8 In Latin America, Mexico Enjoys Rapid Internet Development
1.3.9 Kenya Takes the Lead in Africa in Internet Strength
1.4 Trends in World Internet Development
1.4.1 The Competition on Digital Infrastructure Intensifies and Necessitates Deeper Interconnectivity
1.4.2 Digital Transformation Progresses Quickly in Various Countries and Necessitates Common Prosperity
1.4.3 Cross-cultural Communication Encounters New Challenges and Necessitates Exchanges and Mutual Learning
1.4.4 The Militarization of Cybersecurity Accelerates and Necessitates the Orderly Development of Cyberspace
1.4.5 Trust Deficit in Cyberspace Enlarges and Necessitates the Realization of Fairness and Justice
2 World Information Infrastructure Construction
2.1 Outline
2.2 The Evolution and Upgrading of Communication Network Infrastructure Accelerate in an All-Round Way
2.2.1 5G Development Comes to a New Stage
2.2.2 Fixed Broadband Network Enters the Optical-Fiber Era
2.2.3 The Popularization and Deployment of IPv6 Accelerate
2.2.4 The Deployment of Space-Air-Ground Integrated Network (SAGIN) Speeds Up
2.3 Competition in Computing Infrastructure Increasingly Intensifies
2.3.1 Cloud Computing Plays a Crucial Role in Computing Infrastructure
2.3.2 Data Centers Become Important Computing Infrastructure
2.3.3 Edge Computing Becomes Indispensable Infrastructure
2.3.4 The Market Scale of High-Performance Computing Continues to Enlarge
2.4 Global Deployment of New-Technology Infrastructure Quickens
2.4.1 AI Becomes New Infrastructure that Guides Intelligent Revolution
2.4.2 Blockchain Plays a Decisive Role in the Strategic Competition Among Great Powers
2.4.3 The Deployment of Global Quantum-Communication Backbone Network Accelerates
2.5 The Construction of Application-Oriented Infrastructure Makes Haste
2.5.1 The Construction of IoT Infrastructure Quickens
2.5.2 The Application of Industrial Internet Extends and Deepens
2.5.3 The Deployment of Global Internet of Vehicles (IoV) Accelerates
3 World Information Technology Development
3.1 Outline
3.2 Basic Technologies
3.2.1 High-Performance Computing Moves Towards an Era in Which Performance and Energy-Consumption Are Taken into Account
3.2.2 Chip Manufacturing Process is Upgraded Iteratively and the Production Capacity Needs to Be Improved
3.2.3 Traditional Industrial Pattern of Software Technology Steadily Changes
3.2.4 The Ecology of New Open-Source Technologies Constantly Improves
3.3 Cutting-Edge Technologies
3.3.1 AI Continues to Develop and Algorithm and Computing Power Continue to Improve
3.3.2 Cloud Native Technology Gradually Matures
3.3.3 Quantum Information Technology Is Deeply Explored
3.4 New Technologies and New Applications
3.4.1 The R&D of New Drugs Speeds Up with the Help of AI
3.4.2 L3 Scene of Automated Driving Is Progressively Piloted
3.4.3 The Implementation of Digital Twin Is Accelerated Conceptually and Technologically
4 World Digital Economy Development
4.1 Outline
4.2 The Development Trend of Global Digital Economy
4.2.1 Countries Actively Promote the Strategic Layout in Cutting-Edge Fields
4.2.2 The Development Pattern Basically Remains Stable
4.2.3 Internet Enterprises Develop Rapidly
4.2.4 The Investment in Digital Economy Increases Significantly
4.2.5 Global Digital Trade Grows Against Headwinds
4.2.6 Digital Economy Helps to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic Globally
4.3 Digital Industrialization Develops Steadily
4.3.1 Basic Telecommunications Industry Forges Ahead in a Stable Way
4.3.2 Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry Advances Steadily
4.3.3 Software and Information Technology Service Industry Develops Quickly
4.3.4 Internet Information Content Service Industry Grows Against Headwinds
4.4 Industrial Digitalization Continues to Deepen
4.4.1 The Digitalization of Manufacturing Industry Further Advances
4.4.2 The Digitalization of Service Industry Accelerates
4.4.3 Agricultural Digitalization Advances Steadily
4.5 The Pace of Fintech Innovation Accelerates
4.5.1 Blockchain Finance Presents a Trend of Steady Development
4.5.2 AiFinance Faces Both Opportunities and Challenges
4.5.3 Digital Currency Flourishes
4.6 E-Commerce Maintains a Trend of High-Speed Development
4.6.1 The Market Scale Continues to Rise
4.6.2 The Competition Pattern Becomes More Stable
4.6.3 Cross-Border E-Commerce Develops Rapidly
5 World Digital Government Development
5.1 Outline
5.2 The Evaluation and Development of World Digital Government
5.2.1 Comprehensive E-Government Evaluation
5.2.2 The Construction of Infrastructure
5.2.3 Open Government Data
5.2.4 Online Governmental Services
5.2.5 Digital Integration and Participation
5.2.6 Data Security and Privacy
5.3 Innovative Practice of Digital Government in the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic
5.3.1 From Integrated Platform Information Disclosure to Multi-platform Information Sharing
5.3.2 From Basic Services of Mobile Applications to Data Monitoring Based on User’s Willingness
5.3.3 From Technological Plug-Ins to Multi-scene Applications of Smart Tools
5.4 New Trends in the Construction of Digital Government
5.4.1 Regional Cooperation Further Deepens
5.4.2 Local Governments Become E-Government Entities that Play a More Active Role
5.4.3 “Personal Information Protection” Becomes a New Domain that Plays an Increasingly Important Role
6 World Internet Media Development
6.1 Outline
6.2 The Development Landscape of World Internet Media
6.2.1 Traditional Social Media Platforms
6.2.2 Emerging Digital Media Platforms
6.3 Hot Topics in World Internet Media
6.3.1 The “Centenary of the Communist Party of China” Arouses Media Attention Worldwide
6.3.2 “Carbon Neutrality” Becomes a Central Issue in World Internet Media
6.3.3 “China Example of Poverty Alleviation and Governance” Evokes Worldwide Concern in the Public Opinion on the Internet
6.3.4 The Conflict that Arises from “Vaccine Nationalism” Becomes Prominent
6.4 The Governance and Regulation of World Internet Media
6.4.1 The Antitrust Regulation on Social Media is Upgraded
6.4.2 The Scramble for Traffic Between Social-Media Platforms and Traditional Journalism Intensifies
6.4.3 The Legal Regulation Against Algorithmic Discrimination is Promoted
6.5 Trends in the Technological Development of World Internet Media
6.5.1 Online Conference Catalyzes the New Normal of Cloud Connection
6.5.2 Audio Social Media Face Both Opportunities and Challenges
6.5.3 The Transformation of Film and Television Industry into Streaming Media Accelerates
7 World Cybersecurity Development
7.1 Outline
7.2 Cybersecurity Threats Continue to Evolve
7.2.1 Typical Trends in Cybersecurity Risks and Threats
7.2.2 Trends in Cybersecurity Threats in Key Sectors
7.3 Various Countries in the World Continue to Improve the Formulation of Cybersecurity Policies
7.3.1 The Formulation of Cybersecurity Policies: A Survey
7.3.2 Key Layout of Cybersecurity
7.4 The Innovation and Development of Cybersecurity Technology
7.4.1 Cyber Resilience Becomes a Buzz Word in the Field of Cybersecurity
7.4.2 New Practices on Exploring Data Privacy Protection
7.4.3 New AI Attack Means
7.5 Cybersecurity Industry Develops Steadily
7.5.1 Global Cybersecurity Industry Maintains a Stable Growth Rate
7.5.2 Cybersecurity Services Occupy a Dominant Market Position
7.5.3 Venture Capital to Cybersecurity Industry Hits a New Record High
7.6 The Cultivation of Cybersecurity Talents
7.6.1 The Gap in Cybersecurity Talents Presents a Narrowing Trend for the First Time
7.6.2 The Skills of Cybersecurity Talents Are Constantly Improved
8 World Rule-of-Law Construction in Cyberspace
8.1 Outline
8.2 Cybercrime Paints a Grim Picture and Law-Enforcement in Cyberspace Governance Arouses Wide Attention
8.2.1 Cyber Law-Enforcement Continues to Improve and New Law-Enforcement Departments Come to Rise
8.2.2 Priority Is Given to Content Review and Platform Review is Strengthened
8.2.3 Transnational Crimes Continue to Increase and International Transnational Law-Enforcement Gets Under Way
8.2.4 With the Threat to the Vulnerable Groups, the Protection of Children’s Rights and Interests Becomes the Central Issue
8.3 The Awareness of Cyber Sovereignty Is Enhanced and the Rule-of-Law Protection of Cyber Sovereignty Is Strengthened
8.3.1 Cybersecurity Risk Is Continuously Aggravated and the Awareness of Cyber Sovereignty is Significantly Improved
8.3.2 Data-Security Risks Multiply and Legal-Protection Forms Diversify
8.3.3 Discourse Power in Cyberspace Becomes More Important and the Game on International Cooperation Continues in Cyberspace Governance
8.4 The Competition in Cyber Economy Intensifies and Cyber-Platform Governance Becomes a Major Field
8.4.1 Cyber Economy Thrives and the Legislation on Antitrust Against Platform Continually Strengthens
8.4.2 Employees in Cyber Economy Balloon, with the Employment Responsibility of Platform Put on the Agenda
8.4.3 The Rights and Interests of Network Users Are Damaged and the Accountability of Platform Tort Is Gradually Conducted
8.5 Emerging Technologies Empower Network Industry, with Security Measures Timely Following up
8.5.1 Faced with the Misuse of Biometric Information, the Legislation on Information Protection Makes Positive Response
8.5.2 Algorithm Push Endangers Privacy and Algorithm-Governance System Gradually Improves
8.5.3 The Application of Blockchain Enlarges and Industrial Regulatory System Takes Effect
9 International Cyberspace Governance
9.1 Outline
9.2 Main Features of Annual International Cyberspace Governance
9.2.1 Under the Normalization of Pandemic Prevention and Control, the Demand for Digital Development and Governance Surges
9.2.2 Geopolitics Catalyzes and Enlarges New Digital Divide
9.2.3 Technological Politicization Threatens Supply-Chain Security
9.2.4 Green Digital Cooperation Invigorates International Cyberspace Governance
9.3 New Progress in International Cyberspace Governance
9.3.1 The Formulation of International Rules in Cyberspace Continues to Advance
9.3.2 Global Digital Currency Accelerates Twin-Track Development
9.3.3 Digital Tax Administration Forms a Trend
9.3.4 Data Governance Is Actively Promoted
9.3.5 Platform Governance Continuously Deepens
9.3.6 AI Governance Arouses Wide Attention
9.3.7 Various Parties Strive to Bridge the Digital Divide
9.4 Cyberspace Governance in Some Representative Countries and Regions
9.4.1 China
9.4.2 The United States
9.4.3 Russia
9.4.4 The European Union
9.4.5 Germany
9.4.6 France
9.4.7 The United Kingdom
9.4.8 Japan
9.4.9 South Korea
Postscript

Citation preview

Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies

World Internet Development Report 2021 Blue Book for World Internet Conference Translated by CCTB Translation Service

World Internet Development Report 2021

Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies

World Internet Development Report 2021 Blue Book for World Internet Conference Translated by CCTB Translation Service

Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies Beijing, China

ISBN 978-981-19-9322-0 ISBN 978-981-19-9323-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7 Jointly published with Publishing House of Electronics Industry The print edition is not for sale in China (Mainland). Customers from China (Mainland) please order the print book from: Publishing House of Electronics Industry. © Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

The world undergoes great changes that have not been seen in a century, which accelerated and complicated international environment in 2021. Unilateralism and protectionism continued to proliferate. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic proved a protracted one and the virus mutated frequently. The prevention and control of the pandemic presented a grim picture, and the recovery of world economy remained in the doldrums. Global industrial chain and supply chain were reshaped, with instability and uncertainty significantly rising. Major countries in the world quickened digital transformation, and digital economy expanded against headwinds, signaling a stage of fast development of digital economy. This year, we compile World Internet Development Report 2021 (hereinafter referred to as “the Report”) to review and investigate world Internet development, represent the status quo of world Internet development, and analyze the trends of world Internet development in an objective way. (1) The Report tallies with global practice of the idea or proposition of building “a community with a shared future in cyberspace”. Chinese President Xi Jinping puts forward the idea or proposition of building “a community with a shared future in cyberspace”, which highlights high concern for common well-being of mankind, expresses common expectations of international community, and is becoming an international consensus. Presently, promoting the reform of a global Internet governance system, as a significant topic that arouses worldwide concern, has been universally acknowledged and vigorously supported. During the compilation of the Report, we uphold President Xi Jinping’s idea or proposition of building “a community with a shared future in cyberspace”, display joint efforts of countries to curb the abuse of information technology and combat cyberattacks, and demonstrate the status quo of world Internet development as well as the beautiful vision of people of all countries for Internet development, hoping to jointly build cyberspace into a community for development, a community for security, a community for responsibility, and a community for common interests that benefits all mankind. (2) The Report scrutinizes the trends of world Internet development and mirrors new measures and progress in Internet construction in various countries. The Report shows the characteristics of world Internet development. Over the v

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past year, international order of cyberspace was reshaped rapidly, and the layout of key areas was accelerated, in which the formulation of international digital rules became a central issue in international competition and game. The construction of digital government steadily advanced, and “combating the pandemic with digital technology” became top priority of digital management and services of governments. The convergence of Internet media formed a prominent trend, and the construction of cybersecurity intensified, with the investment to network infrastructure increased. World rule-of-law construction in cyberspace sped up. Major countries and regions in the world successively introduced a series of laws, regulations, and policy documents on supply-chain security, data security, and personal information protection, which continuously augmented antitrust regulation against platform. (3) The Report strives to illustrate new landscape and features of world Internet development in a comprehensive, accurate, and objective manner. Focusing on the status quo and trend of world Internet development, the Report optimizes the index system of world Internet development and systematically evaluates Internet development in 48 representative countries in five continents from six dimensions, i.e., infrastructure, innovation capacity, industrial development, Internet application, cybersecurity, and cyberspace governance. The Report deeply analyzes the highlights in eights aspects, i.e., information infrastructure, information technology, digital economy, digital government, Internet media, cybersecurity, and ruleof-law construction in cyberspace and international cyberspace governance, in a bid to reflect new circumstances, problems, and requirements of Internet development in major countries in the world more comprehensively, accurately, and objectively. The Report truthfully records the progress of world Internet development. In the future, we will attach more attention to the trend of world Internet development and contribute Chinese wisdom to facilitating the construction of “a community with a shared future in cyberspace”. Beijing, China August 2021

Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies (CACS)

Contents

1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 World Internet Development in 2021 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 The Construction of Network Infrastructure Accelerates, with the Investment to Network Infrastructure Increased . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.2 The Innovation on Digital Technology Continues to Advance, with Consensus on Technology Governance . . . 1.1.3 Global Digital Economy Grows Against Headwinds and the Layout of Key Fields Accelerates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.4 The Construction of Digital Government Steadily Progresses, with Emphasis on Collaboration in Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.5 Internet Media Convergence Forms a Trend and Algorithmic Regulation Intensifies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.6 Cybersecurity Risks Keep Rising, and Supply-Chain Security and Data Security Arouse Widespread Concern . . . 1.1.7 The Rule-of-Law Construction in Cyberspace Incessantly Accelerates and Antitrust Regulation Continuously Intensifies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.8 International Competition on Digital Rule-Making Is Fierce and International Order in Cyberspace Is Rapidly Reshaped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.1 Index Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.2 GIDI System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.3 Analysis of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Internet Development in Representative Countries and Regions . . . 1.3.1 The United States Continues to Take the Lead in the World in Internet Comprehensive Strength . . . . . . . . . 1.3.2 Internet Development in China Comes to the Stage of Enhancing Quality and Improving Efficiency . . . . . . . . . .

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1.3.3 The United Kingdom Takes the Lead in Cybersecurity Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.4 Japan Accelerates the Construction of Digital Society . . . . . 1.3.5 Internet Application in India Develops Rapidly . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.6 Russia Makes Steady Progress in Internet Development . . . 1.3.7 Vietnam Sees Fast Development of Internet Economy . . . . . 1.3.8 In Latin America, Mexico Enjoys Rapid Internet Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.9 Kenya Takes the Lead in Africa in Internet Strength . . . . . . . 1.4 Trends in World Internet Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.1 The Competition on Digital Infrastructure Intensifies and Necessitates Deeper Interconnectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.2 Digital Transformation Progresses Quickly in Various Countries and Necessitates Common Prosperity . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.3 Cross-cultural Communication Encounters New Challenges and Necessitates Exchanges and Mutual Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.4 The Militarization of Cybersecurity Accelerates and Necessitates the Orderly Development of Cyberspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.5 Trust Deficit in Cyberspace Enlarges and Necessitates the Realization of Fairness and Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 World Information Infrastructure Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 The Evolution and Upgrading of Communication Network Infrastructure Accelerate in an All-Round Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 5G Development Comes to a New Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 Fixed Broadband Network Enters the Optical-Fiber Era . . . . 2.2.3 The Popularization and Deployment of IPv6 Accelerate . . . 2.2.4 The Deployment of Space-Air-Ground Integrated Network (SAGIN) Speeds Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Competition in Computing Infrastructure Increasingly Intensifies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.1 Cloud Computing Plays a Crucial Role in Computing Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.2 Data Centers Become Important Computing Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.3 Edge Computing Becomes Indispensable Infrastructure . . . . 2.3.4 The Market Scale of High-Performance Computing Continues to Enlarge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Global Deployment of New-Technology Infrastructure Quickens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 AI Becomes New Infrastructure that Guides Intelligent Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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2.4.2 Blockchain Plays a Decisive Role in the Strategic Competition Among Great Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.3 The Deployment of Global Quantum-Communication Backbone Network Accelerates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 The Construction of Application-Oriented Infrastructure Makes Haste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.1 The Construction of IoT Infrastructure Quickens . . . . . . . . . 2.5.2 The Application of Industrial Internet Extends and Deepens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.3 The Deployment of Global Internet of Vehicles (IoV) Accelerates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3 World Information Technology Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Basic Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 High-Performance Computing Moves Towards an Era in Which Performance and Energy-Consumption Are Taken into Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 Chip Manufacturing Process is Upgraded Iteratively and the Production Capacity Needs to Be Improved . . . . . . . 3.2.3 Traditional Industrial Pattern of Software Technology Steadily Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.4 The Ecology of New Open-Source Technologies Constantly Improves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Cutting-Edge Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.1 AI Continues to Develop and Algorithm and Computing Power Continue to Improve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.2 Cloud Native Technology Gradually Matures . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.3 Quantum Information Technology Is Deeply Explored . . . . . 3.4 New Technologies and New Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.1 The R&D of New Drugs Speeds Up with the Help of AI . . . 3.4.2 L3 Scene of Automated Driving Is Progressively Piloted . . . 3.4.3 The Implementation of Digital Twin Is Accelerated Conceptually and Technologically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4 World Digital Economy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 The Development Trend of Global Digital Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 Countries Actively Promote the Strategic Layout in Cutting-Edge Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.2 The Development Pattern Basically Remains Stable . . . . . . . 4.2.3 Internet Enterprises Develop Rapidly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.4 The Investment in Digital Economy Increases Significantly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.5 Global Digital Trade Grows Against Headwinds . . . . . . . . . .

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4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

4.2.6 Digital Economy Helps to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic Globally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Digital Industrialization Develops Steadily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 Basic Telecommunications Industry Forges Ahead in a Stable Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry Advances Steadily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.3 Software and Information Technology Service Industry Develops Quickly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.4 Internet Information Content Service Industry Grows Against Headwinds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Industrial Digitalization Continues to Deepen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1 The Digitalization of Manufacturing Industry Further Advances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.2 The Digitalization of Service Industry Accelerates . . . . . . . . 4.4.3 Agricultural Digitalization Advances Steadily . . . . . . . . . . . . The Pace of Fintech Innovation Accelerates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.1 Blockchain Finance Presents a Trend of Steady Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.2 AiFinance Faces Both Opportunities and Challenges . . . . . . 4.5.3 Digital Currency Flourishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E-Commerce Maintains a Trend of High-Speed Development . . . . . 4.6.1 The Market Scale Continues to Rise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.2 The Competition Pattern Becomes More Stable . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.3 Cross-Border E-Commerce Develops Rapidly . . . . . . . . . . . .

5 World Digital Government Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 The Evaluation and Development of World Digital Government . . . 5.2.1 Comprehensive E-Government Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.2 The Construction of Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.3 Open Government Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.4 Online Governmental Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.5 Digital Integration and Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.6 Data Security and Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Innovative Practice of Digital Government in the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 From Integrated Platform Information Disclosure to Multi-platform Information Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 From Basic Services of Mobile Applications to Data Monitoring Based on User’s Willingness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.3 From Technological Plug-Ins to Multi-scene Applications of Smart Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 New Trends in the Construction of Digital Government . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.1 Regional Cooperation Further Deepens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

105 105 106 106 109 110 112 112 113 114 114 114 115 115 116 116 117 118 121 121 121 122 123 125 126 128 130 131 133 134 135 136 137

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5.4.2 Local Governments Become E-Government Entities that Play a More Active Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 5.4.3 “Personal Information Protection” Becomes a New Domain that Plays an Increasingly Important Role . . . . . . . . 138 6 World Internet Media Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 The Development Landscape of World Internet Media . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.1 Traditional Social Media Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.2 Emerging Digital Media Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Hot Topics in World Internet Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.1 The “Centenary of the Communist Party of China” Arouses Media Attention Worldwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.2 “Carbon Neutrality” Becomes a Central Issue in World Internet Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.3 “China Example of Poverty Alleviation and Governance” Evokes Worldwide Concern in the Public Opinion on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.4 The Conflict that Arises from “Vaccine Nationalism” Becomes Prominent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 The Governance and Regulation of World Internet Media . . . . . . . . 6.4.1 The Antitrust Regulation on Social Media is Upgraded . . . . 6.4.2 The Scramble for Traffic Between Social-Media Platforms and Traditional Journalism Intensifies . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.3 The Legal Regulation Against Algorithmic Discrimination is Promoted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5 Trends in the Technological Development of World Internet Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5.1 Online Conference Catalyzes the New Normal of Cloud Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5.2 Audio Social Media Face Both Opportunities and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5.3 The Transformation of Film and Television Industry into Streaming Media Accelerates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

141 141 141 142 143 143

7 World Cybersecurity Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 Cybersecurity Threats Continue to Evolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.1 Typical Trends in Cybersecurity Risks and Threats . . . . . . . . 7.2.2 Trends in Cybersecurity Threats in Key Sectors . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 Various Countries in the World Continue to Improve the Formulation of Cybersecurity Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.1 The Formulation of Cybersecurity Policies: A Survey . . . . . 7.3.2 Key Layout of Cybersecurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 The Innovation and Development of Cybersecurity Technology . . .

157 157 158 158 160

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7.4.1 Cyber Resilience Becomes a Buzz Word in the Field of Cybersecurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4.2 New Practices on Exploring Data Privacy Protection . . . . . . 7.4.3 New AI Attack Means . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 Cybersecurity Industry Develops Steadily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.1 Global Cybersecurity Industry Maintains a Stable Growth Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.2 Cybersecurity Services Occupy a Dominant Market Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.3 Venture Capital to Cybersecurity Industry Hits a New Record High . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.6 The Cultivation of Cybersecurity Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.6.1 The Gap in Cybersecurity Talents Presents a Narrowing Trend for the First Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.6.2 The Skills of Cybersecurity Talents Are Constantly Improved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 World Rule-of-Law Construction in Cyberspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 Cybercrime Paints a Grim Picture and Law-Enforcement in Cyberspace Governance Arouses Wide Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.1 Cyber Law-Enforcement Continues to Improve and New Law-Enforcement Departments Come to Rise . . . . 8.2.2 Priority Is Given to Content Review and Platform Review is Strengthened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.3 Transnational Crimes Continue to Increase and International Transnational Law-Enforcement Gets Under Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.4 With the Threat to the Vulnerable Groups, the Protection of Children’s Rights and Interests Becomes the Central Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 The Awareness of Cyber Sovereignty Is Enhanced and the Rule-of-Law Protection of Cyber Sovereignty Is Strengthened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.1 Cybersecurity Risk Is Continuously Aggravated and the Awareness of Cyber Sovereignty is Significantly Improved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.2 Data-Security Risks Multiply and Legal-Protection Forms Diversify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.3 Discourse Power in Cyberspace Becomes More Important and the Game on International Cooperation Continues in Cyberspace Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4 The Competition in Cyber Economy Intensifies and Cyber-Platform Governance Becomes a Major Field . . . . . . . . .

166 167 167 168 168 169 169 170 171 171 173 173 174 174 175

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8.4.1 Cyber Economy Thrives and the Legislation on Antitrust Against Platform Continually Strengthens . . . . 8.4.2 Employees in Cyber Economy Balloon, with the Employment Responsibility of Platform Put on the Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.3 The Rights and Interests of Network Users Are Damaged and the Accountability of Platform Tort Is Gradually Conducted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5 Emerging Technologies Empower Network Industry, with Security Measures Timely Following up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.1 Faced with the Misuse of Biometric Information, the Legislation on Information Protection Makes Positive Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.2 Algorithm Push Endangers Privacy and Algorithm-Governance System Gradually Improves . . . 8.5.3 The Application of Blockchain Enlarges and Industrial Regulatory System Takes Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 International Cyberspace Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2 Main Features of Annual International Cyberspace Governance . . . 9.2.1 Under the Normalization of Pandemic Prevention and Control, the Demand for Digital Development and Governance Surges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.2 Geopolitics Catalyzes and Enlarges New Digital Divide . . . 9.2.3 Technological Politicization Threatens Supply-Chain Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2.4 Green Digital Cooperation Invigorates International Cyberspace Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3 New Progress in International Cyberspace Governance . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.1 The Formulation of International Rules in Cyberspace Continues to Advance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.2 Global Digital Currency Accelerates Twin-Track Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.3 Digital Tax Administration Forms a Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.4 Data Governance Is Actively Promoted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.5 Platform Governance Continuously Deepens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.6 AI Governance Arouses Wide Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.7 Various Parties Strive to Bridge the Digital Divide . . . . . . . . 9.4 Cyberspace Governance in Some Representative Countries and Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4.1 China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4.2 The United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4.3 Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4.4 The European Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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190 191 192 193 194 194 195 196 197 197 198 199 200 200 202 204 205

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9.4.5 9.4.6 9.4.7 9.4.8 9.4.9

Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . South Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

206 207 208 209 210

Postscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Chapter 1

Overview

Today, the world is undergoing changes that have not seen in a century. The COVID19 pandemic has a far-reaching impact on humans, IT revolution evolves rapidly, and digital economy thrives. These deeply alter the mode of human production and life and affect the socioeconomic development of various countries, the construction of global governance systems and the evolution of human civilization. In the past year, a new-round scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation accelerated, and the innovation on digital technology achieved breakthroughs in many fields. In traditional economy, the digital transformation of industrial models quickened. Production factors, organizational forms and competitive paradigms continued to evolve, with global industrial division systems further reorganized. Digital economy served as an important choice for countries in the world to hedge against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and speed up socioeconomic transformation. Countries in the world accelerated the layout of new-type infrastructure. New-type information infrastructure represented by 5G, AI, IoT, industrial Internet and satellite Internet turned to be new momentum for global economic growth. Major countries strived to strengthen the R&D capability of cutting-edge technologies, organize technological alliances, and formulate technological rules, so as to forge dominant position in cyberspace development. Social media remained active. Some countries continuously enhanced content governance and energetically combated false information. Besides, various countries in the world vigorously promoted the construction of cybersecurity-guarantee capacity, constantly enhanced rule-of-law construction in cyberspace, and fortified data security and personal information protection, which produced remarkable progress in international cyberspace governance. Noticeably, global trade protectionism emerges and unbalanced development among countries deteriorates. New technological barriers and the pandemic coalesce, which enlarges digital divide, employment crisis and the gap between the rich and the poor. Threats to cybersecurity become prominent, and targeted or organized cyberattacks paint a grim picture. International order in cyberspace is reshaped fast. © Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, World Internet Development Report 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7_1

1

2

1 Overview

In the arena, the debate over data security, platform governance, technology governance and supply-chain security continues to heat up. Confronted with the instability and uncertainty of cyberspace development, various countries should act with the trends of the times, undertake the responsibility of development, address risks and challenges together, promote global cyberspace governance, and build cyberspace into a community for development, a community for security, a community for responsibility, and a community for common interests that benefits all mankind.

1.1 World Internet Development in 2021 1.1.1 The Construction of Network Infrastructure Accelerates, with the Investment to Network Infrastructure Increased Now, human society sees new-round scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. Featuring ubiquity, integration and intelligence, new-type infrastructure represented by 5G, IoT, industrial Internet and satellite Internet functions as new driving force for global economic growth. Over the past year, the evolution and upgrading of global communication network infrastructure accelerated, and fixed broadband network advanced from the fiber-to-the-home to the Gigabit era of optical connectivity. By the end of 2020, the number of fixed broadband connection in the world had reached 1.18 billion.1 By the end of May 2021, 443 telecom operators in 133 countries and regions had invested in 5G, of which 169 telecom operators in 70 countries and regions launched 5G commercial services.2 The popularization and deployment of IPv6 quickened, and industrial giants like SapceX, OneWeb and Amazon promptly promoted the construction of satellite Internet. The competition on computing infrastructure became fierce. Global cloud computing developed fast. Data center, edge-computing platform and supercomputing center served as important computing infrastructure. Globally, the deployment of emerging-technology infrastructure sped up, and major countries and regions in the world successively adopted AI strategies. Taking data, algorithm, computing power and platform as core elements, AI infrastructure resources received wide attention. Blockchain was applied to distributed use cases that called for cross-regional, crossindustrial and cross-filed collaboration. Major countries stepped up the implementation of long-distance quantum communication trunk-line projects. The construction of application-oriented infrastructure developed quickly. The deployment of global commercial cellular-IoT network continually expanded, the construction of industrial Internet achieved positive progress, the construction of core infrastructure like

1 2

Data Source: The report of Point Topic, a market research firm. Data Source: Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA).

1.1 World Internet Development in 2021

3

network facilities and identification and resolution systems accelerated, and Internet of Vehicles (IoV) entered the “fast lane”. As governments in the world commonly recognize, the construction of network infrastructure means an important support for robustly enlarging effective demand and effectually addressing the economic downturn under the impact of the COVID19 pandemic. For example, Russia releases The Roadmap for the Development of Quantum Communication in Russian Federation3 to quicken the development of quantum communication technology and IoT. The European Union publishes 2030 Digital Compass: The European Way for the Digital Decade,4 which proposes to build a safe, high-performance and sustainable digital infrastructure, via which people can obtain affordable, safe and high-quality network connections. Simultaneously, some countries intentionally create digital barriers, restrict or prohibit foreign digital hardware device and software service providers from doing business in domestic markets, and curb normal market behaviors of corporations with technological advantages. These actions impede international cooperation in digital area and infrastructure construction conducted among countries based on mutual trust and cause the new digital divide.

1.1.2 The Innovation on Digital Technology Continues to Advance, with Consensus on Technology Governance Information industry plays a dominant role in global economic development. Digital technologies like semiconductor, big data, IoT and AI come to the stage of technological explosion, with breakthroughs in digital-technology innovation. In the past year, the level of high-performance computing steadily improved. New-type heterogeneous-architecture-based supercomputing can integrate performance with environmental protection. The chip process was upgraded iteratively, with mainstream chip products reaching 7 nm process. The monopolistic pattern of computing chips remained prominent, global leading corporations dominated the R&D of computing chips, and 3D NAND technology of memory chips signaled a new development direction of NAND Flash. The continuous shortage of chip manufacturing capacity resulted in short supply, higher price and longer delivery time of a variety of chips. Therefore, various countries laid stress on developing chip manufacturing capacity, with the development pattern of integrated circuits significantly adjusted. Traditional patterns of software technology changed steadily, and operating systems displayed a trend of cross-platform and cross-field development. 3

Cankaoxiaoxi.com: “Russian Experts: Russia Is Investigating China’s Experience in Establishing Quantum Communication System”, March 2, 2021, http://www.cankaoxiaoxi.com/science/202 10302/2436210.shtml. 4 Science and Technology Daily: “‘Digital Compass’ May Lead European Way for the Digital Decade”, March 15, 2021, http://digitalpaper.stdaily.com/http://www.kjrb.com/kjrb/html/2021-03/ 15/content_464170.htm.

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1 Overview

“Micro kernel + modular design” formed a new fashion, IoT operating systems diversified, and industrial software featured platform-based, cloud service-based and low code-based development. Global open-source-technology ecology developed at a high speed. A series of software or hardware products in emerging technology, e.g. AI, cloud computing and big data, took open-source ecology as a major development path. RISC-V kindled an upsurge for open-source hardware and open chip design. In the cutting-edge fields, AI algorithms in computer vision, natural language processing and other fields continued to innovate iteratively, and AI chips served as the underlying structure that supported AI-technology industry. Cloud native technology matured and accelerated the construction of new-type infrastructure. Various technological routes of quantum communication paralleled. The theoretical framework as well as R&D and application of quantum measurement took shape, with significant progress in exploring quantum application. New technologies and applications came to rise. The R&D of new drugs accelerated with the aid of AI, automatic driving entered the pilot of L3 use case, and digital twin technology turned to reality in a fast way. With the rise of new-generation AI technology in the world, to effectively govern AI becomes a key topic that arouses widespread concern in international community. Countries actively increase their investment to boost technological innovation and development, strengthen the governance of AI and other technologies, and facilitate the orderly development of technological norms. In January 2021, the United Nations published an article, calling on all countries in the world to be vigilant against the negative consequences of using AI technologies, such as bias, racism and false information.5 In March 2021, the European Union officially established the European Innovation Council (EIC), which planned to invest more than 10 billion euros from 2021 to 2027. In this way, EU member states can make more innovations or breakthroughs in self-perception AI and other fields.6 In April 2021, the European Commission unveiled the proposal of Artificial Intelligence Act and took different regulatory measures for AI systems at different risk levels in different use cases.7 In June 2021, the United States launched Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, which increased investment in AI, semiconductor, biotechnology, quantum computing, advanced communications and advanced energy, so as to strengthen America’s leading technological advantages.

5

UN News: “Bias, Racism and Lies: Facing up to the Unwanted Consequences of AI”, January 4, 2021, https://news.un.org/zh/story/2021/01/1075032. 6 Science and Technology Daily: “Newly-Founded European Innovation Council (EIC) Focuses on Breakthrough Technologies”, March 22, 2021, http://digitalpaper.stdaily.com/http://www.kjrb. com/kjrb/html/2021-03/22/content_464564.htm. 7 Xinhua News Agency: “The European Commission Proposes A Legal Framework on AI”, April 21, 2021, http://www.xinhuanet.com/tech/2021-04/22/c_1127360875.htm.

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5

1.1.3 Global Digital Economy Grows Against Headwinds and the Layout of Key Fields Accelerates For major countries in the world, digital economy means an important choice to hedge against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and speed up socioeconomic transformation. In the past year, the integration of the global digital economy and real economy deepened, and digital industrialization advanced steadily. Basic telecommunications industry kept improving. As IDC predicted, in 2021, global expenditure on telecommunications service would total 1.54 trillion U.S. dollars.8 Electronic information manufacturing progressed stably, IT service industries like big data, AI and blockchain maintained high-speed development, and Internet information content service industry grew against headwinds. Industrial digitization played a crucial role in boosting global digital economy. The digitization of manufacturing further deepened. Major countries actively implemented the strategy of “Reindustrialization”, regarded new-generation IT as a key element in reshaping the competitive advantage of industrial chain, and promoted the deep integration of digital technology and manufacturing systems. Agricultural digitization develops steadily. In 2020, the scale of global smart agriculture market achieved c. 13.8 billion U.S. dollars,9 with agricultural robots extensively used. The digitization of service industry accelerates, and online education and online medical markets grow fast. In 2020, the scale of global online education market exceeded 250 billion U.S. dollars,10 and the scale of online medical market reached around 152.4 billion U.S. dollars.11 Fintech thrives. Various countries successively deploy digital currencies. According to the latest survey report of Bank for International Settlements, around 86% of central banks in 65 countries or economies studied digital currency, and the proportion of central banks that tested digital currency or conducted POC (proof of concept) increased from 42% in 2019 to 60% in 2020.12 E-commerce advances against headwinds and becomes an economic driving force to foster domestic growth and international trade. Cross-border e-commerce functions as a new growth point to stabilize foreign trade. In 2020, global e-commerce sales amounted to 428 million U.S. dollars.13 Countries launch strategic measures to quicken digital economy growth. Lashed by the COVID-19 pandemic, global economic output dropped by 4.3% in 2020, marking the most significant recession since the Great Depression.14 Various countries prioritize digital economy in their development strategies, enthusiastically 8

Data Source: IDC: Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker. Data Source: Markets and Markets. 10 Data Source: Grand View Research. Inc. 11 Data Source: Global Industry Analysts.Inc. 12 Data Source: White Paper on the Progress of Research & Development of E-CNY in China published by the People’s Bank of China on July 16, 2021. 13 Data Source: eMarketer. 14 Data Source: World Economic Situation and Prospects published by the United Nations on January 25, 2021. 9

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1 Overview

promote digital legislation, deploy cutting-edge fields, and further the normal and innovative development of digital economy. Since 2020, the United States has issued Federal Data Strategy 2020 Action Plan, Pioneering the Future Advanced Computing Ecosystem: A Strategic Plan and other strategies to ensure America’s leading role in the world. The European Union releases Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, A European Strategy for Data, A New Industrial Strategy for Europe and 2030 Digital Compass: the European Way for the Digital Decade to accelerate the digital transformation of Europe. In the meantime, as antitrust against platform becomes a worldwide issue, various countries enhance antitrust against platforms. In December 2020, the European Union published Digital Markets Act (Draft), which reinforced the prior supervision of large-scale digital platforms and required platforms to notify the mergers and acquisitions in advance. In June 2021, the United States launched a number of proposals of antitrust acts, such as Ending Platform Monopolies Act, Platform Competition and Opportunity Act and The American Innovation and Choice Online Act. These acts meant a major change to existent antitrust legislation in the United States.

1.1.4 The Construction of Digital Government Steadily Progresses, with Emphasis on Collaboration in Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic The construction of global digital government has been widely actualized. Major countries on a global scale successively carry out digital government strategies and center on infrastructure construction, open public data, online government services and citizen’s digital participation in their construction of digital government. Over the past year, many countries continuously furthered the construction of government informatization, government cloud platforms and data center systems, in order to enhance the swift deployment and resilient expansion of government information systems. 5G network was the central work in the construction of government infrastructure in various countries. Open data was widely recognized among countries. The number of countries that established OGD (open government data) portals jumped from 46 in 2014 to 153 in 2020.15 The coverage of online services continued to enlarge, and the service level significantly improved. As the data of UN EGovernment Survey 2020 evidenced, the number of countries that provided at least one online-affair service increased from 140 in 2018 to 162 in 2020, up by 16%. Simultaneously, various countries constantly optimized the functions of national portals, which evolved from integrated platform information disclosure to multiplatform information sharing. Nearly 90% of surveyed countries had e-government portals, with one-stop services, social-networking platforms and feedback-option interactive design. Countries played an active role in providing online services for 15

Data Source: UN E-Government Survey 2020 released by the United Nations on July 10, 2020.

1.1 World Internet Development in 2021

7

vulnerable groups such as women, immigrants, the elderly, the disabled and the poor to strengthen public digital participation. Governments of various countries and regions voluntarily deepen cooperation and jointly promote the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, “combating the pandemic with digital technology” becomes top priority of digital management and services of governments. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic strikes traditional offline governance models and means, and information technology becomes an important way for governments to prevent and control the pandemic and provide services. As UN E-Government Survey 2020 demonstrated, by May 13, 2020, c. 97.5% of countries released information on the COVID-19 pandemic on their official websites.16 In the prevention and control of the pandemic, governments of various countries consolidated cooperation with non-governmental institutions like private sectors and social organizations. Based on the national integrated government service platform, Chinese government introduced “Health QR Code” app, which helped enterprises’ resumption of work and production and raised the modernization of national governance capacity and governance systems. Meanwhile, many governments took the initiative in balancing the needs of pandemic prevention and control and personal-privacy protection, which put spurs to the shift of basic services of mobile applications to data monitoring based on users’ willingness.

1.1.5 Internet Media Convergence Forms a Trend and Algorithmic Regulation Intensifies Engulfed by the COVID-19 pandemic, global Internet media industry realizes growth against headwinds by dint of cloud-connection advantages. In 2021, Internet media technology continued to evolve iteratively, with a prominent trend of diversity and multi-polarization in communication form and landscape. In the COVID-19 pandemic, mainstream news media served as the most effective and reliable channel to access information. Media returned to public nature. Media like the European Broadcasting Union as well as The Washington Post and The New York Times of the United States cancelled the paid content and provided free pandemic information services to global audiences. Public opinions and hot topics from global Internet media diversified. Carbon neutrality, environmental protection and global poverty alleviation and governance and the pandemic information evoked great attention among global Internet media and triggered heated discussions from all parties. Social media performed in an eye-catching way. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter remained

16

Data Source: According to the survey of official websites of 193 United Nations member states conducted in UN E-Government Survey 2020.

8

1 Overview

main public space for American and European citizens to discuss topics in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the annual report of Facebook suggested,17 by December 2020, the average number of daily active users on Facebook reached 1.84 billion, with an increase of 11% year on year (over 2019). Short videos or emerging digital media represented by TikTok are well received. In the first quarter of 2021, TikTok topped the global App download list. The functions of social media multiply and the transformation of service forms accelerates. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, audio socializing represented by Clubhouse springs up, and LinkedIn and other media expand their functions of audio socializing. In the COVID19 pandemic, traditional film and television industry was severely mauled, which meant an opportunity for the development of emerging streaming-media platforms and further promoted the transformation of traditional film and television industry to the technology and business model of streaming media. In 2020, Netflix took the lead in streaming media, whose subscription rose by 37 million and annual business revenue totaled 25 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 24% year on year. WarnerMedia, Disney and other film companies all transferred their film works to their streaming media platforms. Film companies that had not established streamingmedia platforms adopted the dual strategy of delaying the release and selling films to streaming-media platforms. In response to problems of capital’s manipulation over media and influence on citizen values, various countries are strengthening the regulation of Internet media. In the era of digital news, platform-based media nibble at the audience traffic and advertising revenue of traditional journalism, which intensifies the scramble for traffic, interests and power between social-media platform and traditional journalism. Faced with the growing influence of Internet giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Australia launch antitrust investigations and penalties to varying degree to balance the interests pattern. Algorithmic discrimination and ethical anomie continue to emerge, and various countries tighten up on legal regulation. According to the data of the U.S. National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), by April 2021, 16 states in the United States had enacted relevant laws to legally regulate AI technology and algorithm.18 The European Union released Artificial Intelligence Act to regulate algorithmic discrimination and big data-enabled price discrimination against existing customers, in order to seek a balance between the benefits from algorithms and the protection of citizens’ rights and interests.

17

Facebook Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Results, https://investor.fb.com/investornews/press-release-details/2021/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2020-Results/ default.aspx. 18 Data Source: NCSL, https://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-tec hnology/2020-legislation-related-to-artificial-intelligence.aspx.

1.1 World Internet Development in 2021

9

1.1.6 Cybersecurity Risks Keep Rising, and Supply-Chain Security and Data Security Arouse Widespread Concern Cybersecurity means a global challenge, and no country can stay aloof from it. International community must undertake the responsibility of safeguarding cybersecurity. In 2021, cybersecurity faced grimmer prospect. Large-scale targeted cyberattacks crept up, with security vulnerability, data leakage, cyber fraud and ransomware continuously upgraded and developed. SolarWinds Event as well as the blackmail attack on the U.S. oil pipeline operator had a far-reaching impact. The innovation on cybersecurity technology made new progress. Global well-known cybersecurity corporations actively groped for cybersecurity-risk prevention capability represented by cyber resilience technology, data-privacy protection technology represented by security multi-party computing and new-technology security-risk prevention represented by new AI attacks, so as to effectively address various cybersecurity threats. Global cybersecurity industry maintained stable growth. Cybersecurity service market occupied main market share, and cloud security became the fastest-growing niche market in 2021. As relevant data of Gartner, a consulting firm, predicted, in 2021, global expenditure on information security and risk-management technology and service would rose to 150.4 billion U.S. dollars, by 12.4%. Venture capital to cybersecurity industry hit a new record high with an investment of more than 7.8 billion U.S. dollars19 and great development prospects. Various countries put more efforts into developing cybersecurity talent teams, improving cybersecurity skill training, and enlarging the demand for cybersecurity skills. Cybersecurity industry shifted from a certification-based field to a skill-based field, and the gap in cybersecurity talent presented a narrowing trend for the first time. According to the research data published by (ISC)2 , or the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, in June 2020, the number of cybersecurity posts rose to 3.5 million, yet the current gap in global cybersecurity talent reached 3.12 million. Vis-à-vis 4.07 million in 2019, this betokened a decrease in the gap in cybersecurity talent. Facing increasingly complex and severe cybersecurity situation, various countries fortify significant strategic role of cybersecurity in national security, continually improve the strategic layout of cybersecurity, optimize cybersecurity policies and strategies, and vigorously enhance supply-chain security, critical-informationinfrastructure protection, data security, personal-information protection and other fields. The United States, the United Kingdom and other countries stress cybersecurity as strategic priority. The European Union endeavors to build a credible cybersecurity system. African countries accelerate the formulation of cyberspace strategic plans. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia successively launch relevant policies and measures to progressively realize supply-chain diversification and independent controllable layout, and to promote the establishment of a more resilient security-protection system for critical information infrastructure. 19

Data Source: Crunchbase, Cybersecurity Research Report 2021.

10

1 Overview

Data-security protection signifies a hot topic in annual global cyberspace security, on which various countries issue a substantial number of policy and strategic documents. Data security agencies of various countries continue to design and publish numerous strategic-planning documents. Many countries release implementation plans for the regulation on personal privacy data, clarify the standards for the collection and use of personal information, and quicken the deployment of personal information and privacy data protection.

1.1.7 The Rule-of-Law Construction in Cyberspace Incessantly Accelerates and Antitrust Regulation Continuously Intensifies In recent years, the rule-of-law construction in cyberspace developed steadily, the practice of the rule-of-law construction deepened sustainably, and the achievements of the rule-of-law construction emerged continually. This provided strong legal guarantee for expediting the recovery of global economy, effectively preventing and controlling the pandemic, and boosting the iterative development of network information technology. Globally, cybercrimes continue to increase. Under such circumstances, countries strengthen the construction of cyber law-enforcement agencies and augment the intensity and investment of cyber law-enforcement. The United States establishes the post of “Cyber Czar” to coordinate the work of cybersecurity strategies. French president announced an investment of 136 million euros in the construction of “Cyber Firefighter Program” of the Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information (ANSSI; English: French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems). The European Union proposes to integrate the resources of EU member states and organize a joint cyber department under the leadership of European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), in order to crack down on cybercrimes. Cross-border cyber law-enforcement becomes an effective means to combat cross-border cybercrimes. The 75th Session of the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution on the UN Treaty on Cybercrime, with the negotiation of the above-mentioned treaty scheduled to be launched in January 2022. The United States, Canada and some European countries jointly destroy Emotet, a botnet. Various countries strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the vulnerable groups, especially children, in cyberspace. The United Nations releases “Roadmap for Digital Cooperation”, promoting digital technology to benefit all people in an equal and safe manner. The United States, China, the United Kingdom and Japan promulgate relevant laws to solidify the protection of children’s online rights and interests. In the field of cyber sovereignty, various countries continue to enhance their awareness of cyber sovereignty. Against the background of frequent cyber-sovereignty-risk incidents, various countries take comprehensive measures (e.g. laws, policies and

1.1 World Internet Development in 2021

11

technological standards) to seek cyber sovereignty and interests, and deepen and optimize legislation on data security to protect national security, commercial interests and public privacy. In the field of governing network platforms, the network scale effect of network-platform giants poses a threat to the fairness and sharing of network-market competition order. Various countries continuously strengthen legislation on antitrust work and regulate the competition of platform markets. The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary approves a number of new antitrust laws, which directly restrict largescale technological corporations. The European Union publishes Digital Markets Act (Draft), which aims to solve the unfair competition among digital platforms and reinforce the prior supervision of large-scale digital platforms, and requires platforms to notify the mergers and acquisitions in advance. China timely revises The Antitrust Law of the People’s Republic of China, formulates antitrust guidelines in the field of platform economy, and imposes a fine of 18.228 billion yuan on Alibaba Group. Various countries fortify the regulation on the accountability of cyber-platform tort. The U.S. Senate proposes Secure Technology Act, which sets the boundaries of liability immunity and adds the excluded objects of immunity among platform enterprises. The European Union publishes Digital Services Act (Draft), which raises higher requirements for platform enterprises in terms of accountability standard and system-risk assessment. In the field of emerging-technology regulation, more countries enhance legislative protection of bioinformation, algorithm governance and blockchain. For example, the United States publishes a privacy law for biometric information, and the European Union especially establishes a data-processing evaluation system to protect data via algorithm.

1.1.8 International Competition on Digital Rule-Making Is Fierce and International Order in Cyberspace Is Rapidly Reshaped The COVID-19 pandemic undermines global exchanges and cooperation. The game in cyberspace among major countries and regions becomes more intense. In international cyberspace governance, the uncertainty and vulnerability snowball, and the original international division system disintegrates, which test global governance systems. It is an urgent and practical problem to hasten economic recovery via the use of digital technology. The debate among various parties on digital economy, data security, platform governance, technology governance, ICT supply-chain security and other issues continues to heat up. The game among big powers expands from the technological and industrial levels to the rules on international governance, with focus on international digital rules. As platform enterprises play a more leading role, major countries generally reinforce platform governance. Besides, global digital tax administration accelerates, and data-governance rule improves. Major countries vie for discourse power in making rules in the field of digital economy. Developing

12

1 Overview

countries in ASEAN, the Middle East and Africa actively advance digital transformation, strengthen digital economic cooperation, and develop into an emerging force in cyberspace. The trend of fragmentation in cyberspace continues. With unique advantages in cyberspace, the United States incessantly dominates international policies with domestic politics. The European Union buttresses strategic autonomy in cyberspace and bolsters the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States. Moreover, public resources in global cyberspace becomes increasingly scarce and uneven. Against the backdrop of the competition among great powers, geopolitics breeds new digital divide, which aggravates the imbalance of world Internet development. China upholds the principles of “Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation” in cyberspace, advances the idea of “a community with a shared future in cyberspace” ideologically and practically, and gradually benefits neighboring countries. In September 2020, China’s Global Initiative on Data Security20 attracted worldwide attention. The Initiative focused on core issues in the field of global digital security governance, and aimed to foster the governance of global digital security and the sustainable development of global digital economy by practical measures, including clarifying governmental codes of conduct, urging enterprises to share responsibilities and addressing security risks with multi-party cooperation.

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries In 2017, World Internet Development Report established the Global Internet Development Index (GIDI) System. GIDI System selects and analyzes 48 representative countries on the five continents to fully represent the latest world Internet development in 2021. The 48 representative countries are listed as below: America: The United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Cuba. Asia: China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, The United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Israel, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Pakistan, Iran. Europe: The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Ukraine, Poland, Ireland, Belgium. Oceania: Australia, New Zealand. Africa: South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia.

20

People’s Daily: “China Proposes Global Initiative on Data Security”, September 9, 2020, http:// world.people.com.cn/n1/2020/0909/c1002-31854286.html.

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries

13

1.2.1 Index Construction Global Internet Development Index (GIDI) System comprehensively measures a country’s Internet development with six first-level indicators, i.e. infrastructure, innovation capacity, industrial development, Internet application, cybersecurity and cyberspace governance. In 2021, GIDI System followed first-level indicators in previous years, with 18 second-level indicators and 36 third-level indicators. Given the availability of original data, GIDI System slightly adjusted the descriptions of some indicators at three levels as well as data sources. To be specific, GIDI System is modified as follows: The first-level indicator “Infrastructure”, the third-level indicator “Charge Burden of Mobile Network”, Data Sources: “International Telecommunication Union” changed to “Global mobile Suppliers Association”. The first-level indicator “Innovation Capacity”, the third-level indicator “Innovation Driving Force”, Indicator Description: “Reflecting the innovation in diverse development, R&D and the marketization of innovation achievement in different countries” changed to “Reflecting the application of emerging technologies like AI, robotics, big data, cloud computing and e-commerce by enterprises in different countries”. The first-level indicator “Industrial Development”, the third-level indicator “Intellectual Property Rights Protection” changed to “The Degree of Intellectual Property Rights Protection”, Data Sources: “World Economic Forum” changed to “Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance”. The first-level indicator “Internet Application”, the third-level indicator “Online Activity Degree” changed to “Online Content Availability”, Data Sources: “ZookNIC (A Domain-Name Data Statistical Platform) and the United Nations” changed to “World Economic Forum”. The first-level indicator “Cybersecurity”, newly added: the second-level indicator “Cybersecurity Legislation”; the second-level indicator “Cybersecurity Level”, newly added: the third-level indicator “Cybersecurity Development Capability”.

1.2.2 GIDI System Table 1.1 shows GIDI System in 2021.

1.2.3 Analysis of Results Through the calculation of indicators, the scores of Internet Development Index in 48 countries are obtained, as shown in Table 1.2. In general, the United States and China take the lead over other countries in Internet development, European countries

14

1 Overview

Table 1.1 GIDI System in 2021 First-level indicators

Second-level indicators

Third-level indicators

Indicator description

Data sources

1. Infrastructure

1.1 Fixed Infrastructure

1.1.1 Average download rate of fixed broadband network

Reflecting the average download rate of fixed broadband users over a given period of time in different countries

Statistics of Global Digital Reports released by DataReportal and other institutions

1.1.2 IPv6

Reflecting the deployment of IPv6

Statistics of Cisco (the United States)

1.2.1 Average download rate of mobile broadband network

Reflecting the average download rate of mobile broadband users over a given period of time in different countries

Statistics of Global Digital Reports released by DataReportal and other institutions

1.2.2 Infrastructure of mobile network

Reflecting the infrastructure construction of mobile network in different countries

Statistics of Global Digital Reports released by DataReportal and other institutions

1.2.3 Charge burden of Reflect the availability mobile network of mobile services and devices from the perspective of price in different countries

Statistics of Global mobile Suppliers Association

1.3 Application Infrastructure

1.3.1 The number of supercomputers

Reflecting the number of supercomputers in different countries

Statistics of TOP500

2.1 ICT Patent Application

2.1.1 The number of ICT patent applications

Reflecting the level and capacity of ICT patent applications in different countries

Database of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

2.2 Innovation and Development Capacity

2.2.1 The ratio of R&D Reflecting the ratio of investment in GDP R&D investment in GDP in different countries

1.2 Mobile Infrastructure

2. Innovation Capacity

2.3 Innovation Potential

Statistics of the World Bank

2.2.2 Innovation driving force

Reflecting the Statistics of World application of emerging Economic Forum technologies like AI, robotics, big data, cloud computing and e-commerce by enterprises in different countries

2.3.1 The ratio of talents with digital skills

Reflecting the ratio of talents with digital skills in the total population in different countries

Statistics of World Economic Forum

(continued)

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries

15

Table 1.1 (continued) First-level indicators

Second-level indicators

Third-level indicators

Indicator description

Data sources

3. Industrial Development

3.1 Industrial Development Environment

3.1.1 The degree of intellectual property rights protection

Reflecting the degree of the protection of physical property rights and intellectual property rights, as well as the legal and political environment to realize the protection of property rights in different countries

Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance International Property Rights Index (IPRI)

3.1.2 The capacity of participating in globalization

Reflecting the level of Statistics of Swiss participating in Economic Institute globalization in terms of economic, social and political dimensions in different countries

3.2.1 The ratio of ICT value added

Reflecting the ratio of ICT industrial value added in GDP in different countries

Statistics of The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

3.2.2 The ratio of ICT service export

Reflecting the ratio of ICT service export scale in that of domestic service in different countries

Statistics of World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank

3.2.3 The ratio of ICT product export

Reflecting the ratio of ICT product export scale in that of domestic products in different countries

Statistics of World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank

3.2.4 The number of unicorns in digital industry

Reflecting the number Statistics of CB of corporations with the Insights market value of over one billion U.S. dollars in digital industry in different countries

3.2.5 The creation of mobile applications (Weight: 20%)

Reflecting the creation of mobile applications in different countries

Statistics of International Monetary Fund

3.3.1 The degree of enterprises’ digital transformation

Reflecting the use of ICT to improve commercial model in different countries

Statistics of World Economic Forum

3.3.2 The impact of digital economy on new organizational model

Reflecting the use of ICT to improve organizational model, such as building virtual teams and telework, in different countries

Statistics of World Economic Forum

3.2 Digital Industry

3.3 Economic Effect of Digital Industry

(continued)

16

1 Overview

Table 1.1 (continued) First-level indicators

Second-level indicators

Third-level indicators

Indicator description

Data sources

4. Internet Application

4.1 Person-level Application

4.1.1 The number of Internet users

Reflecting the total number of Internet users in different countries

Statistics of Global Digital Reports released by DataReportal and other institutions

4.1.2 Online time at social media

Reflecting online time at social media in different countries

Statistics of Global Digital Reports released by DataReportal and other institutions

4.1.3 Online content availability

Assessing the availability of relevant online content and services available to netizens in different countries

Statistics of World Economic Forum

4.2.1 ICT used in B2B transactions

Reflecting enterprises’ Statistics of World level and capacity in Economic Forum using ICT in B2B transactions in different countries

4.2.2 Internet used in B2C transactions

Reflecting the role of Internet in e-commerce

4.3.1 Online service index

Reflecting the quality Statistics of the of online service United Nations provided by government websites in different countries

4.3.2 E-participation index

Reflecting the online Statistics of the communication United Nations between citizens and government in different countries

4.3.3 Open government data index

Reflecting the level of open government data in different countries

Statistics of the United Nations

5.1 Cybersecurity Legislation

5.1.1 Policies and regulations on cybersecurity

Reflecting the legislation on cybersecurity and cybercrime in different countries

Statistics of International Telecommunication Union (2020)

5.2 Cybersecurity Facilities

5.2.1 The number of secure network servers per one million people

Reflecting the number of secure network servers per 1 million people in different countries

Database of the World Bank

4.2 Business-Level Application

4.3 Government-Level Application

5. Cybersecurity

Statistics of World Economic Forum

(continued)

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries

17

Table 1.1 (continued) First-level indicators

6. Cyberspace Governance

Second-level indicators

Third-level indicators

Indicator description

Data sources

5.3 Cybersecurity Industries

5.3.1 The number of companies included in Hot 150 Cybersecurity Companies

Reflecting the number of companies that earn a spot on the list of Hot 150 Cybersecurity Companies in different countries

List of Hot 150 Cybersecurity Companies published by Cybersecurity Ventures, a U.S. investment consulting agency

5.4 Cybersecurity Level

5.4.1 The times of cyberattacks

Reflecting mobile devices infected with malware, malicious attacks in the financial field, computers infected with malware, Telnet attacks, the level of encrypted mining attacks and the condition of cyber defense, the latest legislation on cybersecurity and so on in different countries

Global Cybersecurity Survey Report by Comparitech, a technological research corporation

5.4.2 Cybersecurity Development Capability

Reflecting in the R&D of cybersecurity technology, education and training, and the improvement of domestic cybersecurity development capacity by government departments in different countries

Statistics of International Telecommunication Union (2020)

6.1.1 Related organizations in Internet governance

Reflecting related organizations in Internet governance in different countries, in such specific affairs as policy, security, protection of critical information infrastructure, Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), criminal, and protection of consumers

Referring to achievement of foreign researches and inviting experts and scholars in relevant fields to conduct comprehensive evaluation

6.1 Internet Governance

(continued)

18

1 Overview

Table 1.1 (continued) First-level indicators

Second-level indicators

6.2 Participation in International Governance

Third-level indicators

Indicator description

Data sources

6.1.2 Policies and regulations in Internet governance

Reflecting Internet affairs or the making of related regulations and policies in different countries

Referring to achievement of foreign researches and inviting experts and scholars in relevant fields to conduct comprehensive evaluation

6.2.1 Participation in international meetings in Internet governance

Reflecting participation in international conferences on cyberspace in different countries, including bilateral meetings, multilateral meetings and other forums

Referring to achievement of foreign researches and inviting experts and scholars in relevant fields to conduct comprehensive evaluation

6.2.2 Leading or participating in cyber capacity construction

Reflecting helping others in cyber capacity construction, including technological assistance, policy guidance or project training in different countries

Referring to achievement of foreign researches and inviting experts and scholars in relevant fields to conduct comprehensive evaluation

remain relatively balanced in Internet development, ranking top in the scores of Internet Development Index, and Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa rise in the scores of Internet Development Index, yet rank low as a whole.

1.2.3.1

The Construction of New Infrastructure Accelerates and the Problem of Digital Divide Remains Unsolved

In the past year, the commercial use of 5G sped up. According to the statistics of Global System for Mobile communications Association (GSMA), by May 2021, 162 operators in 68 countries and regions had launched one or more 5G commercial services.21 China has built the largest 5G Standalone (SA) Network in the world and run 961,000 5G base stations as totaled,22 with the number of 5G terminal connections reaching 365 million. Globally, IPv6 deployment rapidly progresses and basic resource capacity continuously improves. The construction of new infrastructure accelerates. Under such circumstances, the development of IPv6-based next-generation Internet establishes a solid foundation for the construction of new digital infrastructure like 5G. According 21

Tech.sina.com.cn: “Globally 5G Commercial Network Reaches 162 and 435 Operators Invest in 5G”, May 7, 2021, https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2021-05-07/doc-ikmyaawc3871051.shtml. 22 Data Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China.

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries Table 1.2 The scores of internet development index in 48 countries

19

Ranking

Country

Score

1

The United States

70.17

2

China

61.70

3

The United Kingdom

57.39

4

Germany

57.30

5

Canada

57.01

6

South Korea

56.50

7

Sweden

56.42

8

France

56.28

9

The Netherlands

56.18

10

Israel

55.91

11

Japan

55.90

12

Singapore

55.71

13

Finland

55.45

14

Switzerland

54.58

15

Denmark

54.33

16

Australia

52.90

17

Spain

52.37

18

Ireland

52.18

19

India

52.17

20

Norway

52.15

21

Estonia

52.05

22

Russia

52.00

23

Belgium

51.43

24

New Zealand

51.31

25

Italy

51.08

26

Portugal

50.83

27

Malaysia

50.70

28

The United Arab Emirates

50.58

29

Poland

50.02

30

Saudi Arabia

49.64

31

Brazil

49.37

32

Vietnam

48.79

33

Thailand

48.66

34

Türkiye

48.43

35

Chile

47.46

36

Indonesia

47.45

37

Ukraine

47.32 (continued)

20 Table 1.2 (continued)

1 Overview Ranking

Country

Score

38

Mexico

47.15

39

South Africa

46.78

40

Egypt

46.11

41

Iran

44.92

42

Argentina

44.79

43

Kazakhstan

44.76

44

Kenya

44.67

45

Pakistan

42.92

46

Nigeria

41.67

47

Ethiopia

38.67

48

Cuba

35.90

to the statistics of Cisco (the United States) on global IPv6 deployment, by May 2021, the IPv6 deployment rate was higher than 50% in representative countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India and Brazil, and lower in African countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria.23 In representative countries, the construction of information infrastructure further improves, yet faces a big challenge in obtaining stable and affordable networkconnection services. On the one hand, the construction of data centers quickens. The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzes the demand for teleworking, streaming-media videos and online shopping, and drives the growth of data centers and cloud computing market. As the statistics of Gartner suggest, in 2020, global expenditure on IT dropped by 5.4% over 2019. In particular, the expenditure on data center systems reached c. 208.3 billion U.S. dollars. On the other hand, digital divide is not a problem to be sneezed at. According to the statistics of Digital 2021, the number of global Internet users maintained a momentum for growth (albeit slower), reaching around 4.66 billion, with a penetration rate of 59.5% and an increase of 120 million users (over 2020). Regionally, the Internet penetration rate in Europe was higher than that in other countries in the world. Noticeably, the Internet penetration rate in Northern Europe was the highest in the world, reaching 96%. The Internet penetration rate was relatively high in East Asia and West Asia and low in Central Asia and South Asia. In African continent with weak Internet infrastructure, the Internet penetration rate needs to be raised. The Internet penetration rate was the lowest in Central Africa (26%), with fast growth.24 With regard to network affordability, according to the statistics of Global System for Mobile communications Association, charge burden of mobile network is relatively light in countries like Japan, Singapore, the 23

Data Source: Cisco (the United States), https://6lab.cisco.com/stats/search.php. Data Source: DatarePortal: Digital 2021, https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-globaloverview-report, 2021.1.27. 24

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries

21

United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Belgium. Global digital “access divide” remains unsettled, and “digital competence divide” becomes more prominent. (Digital competence enables various groups to acquire, process and create digital resources.) For example, marginal groups in the information era have no access to Internet and remain utterly ignorant of digital technology. This behooves government and society to provide more education and training resources and encourage various user groups to leap over “digital competence divide”. Table 1.3 shows the scores of Information Infrastructure Index in 48 countries.

1.2.3.2

Various Countries Attach Great Importance to Scientific and Technological Innovation, with an Eastward Shift of Core Regions in Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerates the digital transformation of various industries. Various countries lay emphasis on and make investment in cutting-edge-technology industries, which maintain rapid development. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released Digital Economy Outlook 2020,25 which indicated that by 2020, more than 60 countries had formulated their AI strategies. Specifically, Canada, the United States, the European Union and other countries and regions focus on the R&D of AI technology. Finland, Germany, South Korea and other countries center on the application of AI. Australia, Finland, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries lay stress on the training of AI skills. Besides, the policies on blockchain and quantum computing arouse wide attention. Australia, Germany, India, Switzerland and other countries launch blockchain strategies, and the United States, China, the European Union and other countries and regions take the lead in the expenditure on the R&D of quantum computing. As the 57th edition of the TOP500 List evidences, in 2021, the United States, Japan and China possessed remarkable strength in the development of supercomputers. Among them, the United States and Japan kept ahead in supercomputing strength and performance in the world. According to Global Innovation Index 2020,26 high-income countries like Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands rank top in the innovation list. Notably, Asian economies, China, India, the Philippines and Vietnam in particular, attain significant progress, which presents a trend of eastward shift of core regions in global innovation. As the statistics of OECD disclose, China ranks the 1st in the number of ICT patent applications, much higher than the United States, Japan and other countries. Table 1.4 shows the scores of Internet Innovation Capability Index in 48 countries.

25 26

Data Source: OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2020. Data Source: Global Innovation Index 2020 published by Cornell University, INSEAD, WIPO.

22 Table 1.3 The scores of information infrastructure index in 48 countries

1 Overview Ranking

Country

Score

1

Singapore

7.00

2

South Korea

6.86

3

Switzerland

6.80

4

The United States

6.77

5

China

6.75

6

Norway

6.42

7

France

6.35

8

The United Arab Emirates

6.34

9

Canada

6.30

10

Denmark

6.28

11

The Netherlands

6.26

12

Sweden

6.08

13

Japan

6.07

14

New Zealand

6.01

15

Germany

5.80

16

Saudi Arabia

5.74

17

Spain

5.73

18

Finland

5.72

19

Portugal

5.69

20

Belgium

5.63

21

Thailand

5.58

22

Australia

5.51

23

Chile

5.38

24

The United Kingdom

5.36

25

Israel

5.26

26

Estonia

5.15

27

Poland

5.14

28

Malaysia

5.04

29

Brazil

4.83

30

Italy

4.80

31

Ireland

4.68

32

Vietnam

4.67

33

Russia

4.59

34

Mexico

4.53

35

India

4.47

36

Argentina

4.34

37

Ukraine

4.21 (continued)

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries Table 1.3 (continued)

1.2.3.3

23

Ranking

Country

Score

38

Kazakhstan

4.13

39

South Africa

4.09

40

Türkiye

4.08

41

Egypt

3.92

42

Kenya

3.81

43

Indonesia

3.80

44

Iran

3.77

45

Nigeria

3.46

46

Ethiopia

3.22

47

Cuba

3.07

48

Pakistan

2.50

In the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Scale of Digital Industry Expands Quickly and Industrial Digitization Speeds up

In the COVID-19 pandemic, digital economy boasts the rarely-seen field that grows against headwinds. Particularly, the scale of ICT service export in China, Argentina, India, Finland, Israel and Ireland accounts for high proportion of the scale of domestic service export. The scale of ICT product export in Mexico, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam ditto. The United States, China, India and the United Kingdom hold a safe lead in the number of unicorns in digital industry. Hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic, offline businesses typified by traditional manufacturing and service industries transfer to online businesses in a fast way, which expedites industrial digitization. Significantly, the digitization of manufacturing industry deepens. According to the statistics of World Economic Forum, the United States, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Finland, Switzerland and Israel remain on top in corporate digital transformation. Table 1.5 shows the scores of Internet Industrial Development Index in 48 countries.

1.2.3.4

With a Steady Uptrend in Internet Application, New Online Service Forms and Models Come to Rise

In the COVID-19 pandemic, online services widely prevail and person-level Internet application further improves. According to the statistics of Digital 2021, by June 2021, 3.96 billion people in the world used social media, accounting for 51% of the total population, with a year-on-year increase of 10%.27 The demand for online 27

Datareportal: Digital 2021, https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-global-overviewreport.

24 Table 1.4 The scores of internet innovation capability index in 48 countries

1 Overview Ranking

Country

Score 10.20

1

The United States

2

Japan

9.87

3

South Korea

9.79

4

China

9.76

5

Germany

9.49

6

Sweden

9.44

7

The United Kingdom

9.25

8

Israel

9.19

9

France

9.17

10

Canada

9.14

11

The Netherlands

9.13

12

Finland

9.12

13

Switzerland

8.92

14

Australia

8.85

15

Singapore

8.77

16

India

8.71

17

Italy

8.56

18

Denmark

8.55

19

Russia

8.54

20

Ireland

8.51

21

Norway

8.49

22

Spain

8.47

23

The United Arab Emirates

8.40

24

Malaysia

8.36

25

Saudi Arabia

8.12

26

Poland

8.11

27

Türkiye

8.08

28

New Zealand

8.02

29

Estonia

7.98

30

Portugal

7.95

31

South Africa

7.83

32

Mexico

7.80

33

Ukraine

7.78

34

Belgium

7.70

35

Chile

7.36

36

Vietnam

7.34

37

Thailand

7.32 (continued)

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries Table 1.4 (continued)

Ranking

Country

25 Score

38

Egypt

7.29

39

Brazil

7.29

40

Iran

7.16

41

Indonesia

6.98

42

Argentina

6.95

43

Pakistan

6.92

44

Kenya

6.91

45

Nigeria

6.82

46

Kazakhstan

6.57

47

Ethiopia

6.38

48

Cuba

5.50

education surges, and traditional schools try the use of online courses to promote educational plans. Business-level Internet application develops fast. Particularly, the technological application of digital payment and e-commerce remarkably increase, and new retail models like livestream e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce thrive. According to the Network Readiness Index 2020,28 a report released by Portulans Institute, the United States, China, South Korea, Estonia, Finland, Israel and Sweden rank top in business-level application of digital technologies. In governmentlevel Internet application, in October 2020, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published Digital Government Index, which measured the digital level, efficiency and transparency of governmental departments in 33 countries. As suggested, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Japan take the lead, whilst Argentina, Finland, Germany, Belgium and Chile lag behind.29 In the COVID-19 pandemic, new business forms like telemedicine, teleworking and online education continue to emerge. Chinese medical teams use remote diagnosis and treatment to cure patients with the COVID-19. Many hospitals offer virtual consultation services. Alihealth, JD.com, Tencent’s WeChat, WeDoctor, DXY, Sina Weibo and www.haodf.com commonly operate online consultation platforms. Argentina introduces Entre Todos, a collaboration portal, which provides information, suggestions and tools for teleworking and finances small, medium and micro enterprises that use teleworking. All Finnish schools adopt online teaching, and students can complete manual courses with 3D modeling. New Internet-based businesses and models drive economic growth in the COVID-19 pandemic. Table 1.6 shows the scores of Internet Application Index in 48 countries.

28

Data Source: The Network Readiness Index 2020 published by Portulans Institute. Data Source: Digital Government Index published by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

29

26 Table 1.5 The scores of internet industrial development index in 48 countries

1 Overview Ranking

Country

Score

1

The United States

18.80

2

China

15.35

3

Israel

14.27

4

Finland

14.02

5

Singapore

13.56

6

Sweden

13.46

7

Estonia

13.14

8

The United Kingdom

13.06

9

Ireland

13.01

10

Switzerland

12.78

11

Germany

12.72

11

The Netherlands

12.72

13

France

12.65

14

Denmark

12.60

15

South Korea

12.39

16

Canada

12.28

17

Japan

12.22

18

Malaysia

12.16

19

India

12.12

20

Belgium

11.97

21

Vietnam

11.82

22

Spain

11.81

23

Australia

11.73

24

New Zealand

11.66

25

Portugal

11.65

26

The United Arab Emirates

11.44

27

Ukraine

11.34

28

Poland

11.31

29

Italy

11.29

30

Mexico

11.20

31

Chile

11.16

32

Indonesia

11.11

33

Thailand

11.09

34

Russia

11.07

35

Brazil

11.04

36

Saudi Arabia

10.96

37

Türkiye

10.89 (continued)

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries Table 1.5 (continued)

1.2.3.5

27

Ranking

Country

Score

38

South Africa

10.79

39

Kenya

10.77

40

Argentina

10.76

41

Egypt

10.74

42

Norway

10.73

43

Pakistan

10.62

44

Kazakhstan

10.30

45

Iran

10.20

46

Ethiopia

9.46

47

Cuba

8.23

48

Nigeria

8.20

Cybersecurity Faces a Grim Picture and Cybersecurity Level Varies Greatly in Different Countries

Presently, cybersecurity risks like cyberattack, ransomware and security vulnerabilities occur frequently. Canalys, a market research firm, publishes Next for the Cybersecurity. As the report reveals, the attacks from ransomware soar. In 2020, the number of ransomware attacks increased by 60% over 2019. As a result, the scores of Cybersecurity Index in various countries tailed off, with wide disparity in cybersecurity level. Comparitech, a technological firm, evaluates the status quo of cybersecurity in 60 countries in terms of mobile devices infected with malware, malicious attacks in the financial field, computers infected with malware, the condition of cyber defense, and the latest legislation on cybersecurity. As the results show, the cybersecurity level is generally higher in Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands yet lower in Vietnam, India, Brazil and Kazakhstan. As data of CB Insights, an American cybersecurity think tank, indicated, in 2020, the United States was a front-runner in the global cybersecurity field, ranking the 1st in investment and transaction volume in this regard. Table 1.7 shows the scores of the Cybersecurity Index in 48 countries. In Future Risks Report 2020, Eurasia Group of the United States regards cybersecurity as the third largest risk in next five to ten years. Globally, governments and enterprises attach more attention to cybersecurity year after year. As IDC predicts, in 2021, the scale of global investment in hardware, software and services in relation to cybersecurity achieved 143.5 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 8.7% over 2020. Noteworthily, China saw the fastest growth rate in the global cybersecurity market.30 30

Official website of IDC: “IDC Releases the Latest Version of Worldwide Security Spending Guide, and China Takes the Lead in the World with a High Growth Rate of 16.8%”, March 9, 2021, https:// www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prCHC47519821.

28 Table 1.6 The scores of internet application index in 48 countries

1 Overview Ranking

Country

Score

1

The United States

15.50

2

China

15.11

3

Canada

15.01

4

The United Kingdom

14.98

5

The Netherlands

14.90

6

Germany

14.84

7

France

14.45

8

Sweden

14.41

9

Switzerland

14.36

10

Japan

14.01

11

Denmark

13.98

12

Australia

13.96

13

India

13.90

14

Israel

13.86

15

South Korea

13.84

16

Norway

13.79

17

Finland

13.78

18

Russia

13.75

19

Indonesia

13.63

19

Italy

13.63

21

Spain

13.62

22

Poland

13.47

23

Mexico

13.41

24

Belgium

13.35

25

New Zealand

13.32

26

Vietnam

13.26

27

Türkiye

13.22

28

Singapore

13.21

29

Thailand

13.20

30

Brazil

13.19

31

Malaysia

13.15

32

Estonia

13.10

33

Ireland

13.09

34

Ukraine

13.04

35

Argentina

13.03

36

Portugal

13.01

37

Egypt

12.82 (continued)

1.2 Internet Development in Representative Countries Table 1.6 (continued)

1.2.3.6

29

Ranking

Country

Score

38

Chile

12.80

39

Saudi Arabia

12.75

40

South Africa

12.69

41

Pakistan

12.63

42

Nigeria

12.62

43

The United Arab Emirates

12.44

44

Iran

12.40

45

Kazakhstan

12.34

46

Kenya

12.15

47

Ethiopia

11.52

48

Cuba

9.50

The Order in Cyberspace Needs to Be Normalized and International Cooperation in Internet Governance Needs to Be Strengthened

Currently, international Internet governance comes to a stage that features deep reform. In 2020, many countries augmented the governance of network content, technology and platform by promoting legislation and law-enforcement. The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries and regions included social media in the scope of regulation. To be specific, the European Union released Digital Services Act (Draft), which required platforms to perform the duty of reviewing and restricting the dissemination of illegal content. The European Union and the United States tightened the grip on the regulation of AI and face recognition and other technologies. The United Kingdom, Australia and Germany enacted stringent antitrust laws and regulations. In brief, in regard to Internet governance, the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries constructed comprehensive policy-regulation systems and established complete organizations. With the lack of global cyberspace governance and by-common-consent international regulatory organizations, the antagonism among major countries in cyberspace regulation intensifies, which urges them to reach a consensus on the rule and standard framework in the field of Internet. The United States, China, the United Kingdom and other countries actively partake in meetings under the theme of international Internet governance and carry forward the reform of global Internet governance systems. Table 1.8 shows the scores of Cyberspace Governance Index in 48 countries.

30 Table 1.7 The scores of cybersecurity index in 48 countries

1 Overview Ranking

Country

Score

1

The United States

9.25

2

Israel

5.83

3

The United Kingdom

5.78

4

Canada

5.66

5

Singapore

5.64

6

The Netherlands

5.63

7

Germany

5.59

8

Estonia

5.57

9

Denmark

5.57

10

Australia

5.56

11

Finland

5.53

12

France

5.52

13

Japan

5.51

14

Sweden

5.50

15

Norway

5.49

16

Belgium

5.48

17

Ireland

5.47

17

Spain

5.47

19

Russia

5.42

20

Portugal

5.40

21

Italy

5.38

22

Malaysia

5.37

23

Türkiye

5.36

24

Poland

5.35

24

South Korea

5.35

26

Brazil

5.26

27

Vietnam

5.25

28

New Zealand

5.22

29

The United Arab Emirates

5.21

30

China

5.15

31

India

5.11

32

Kazakhstan

5.08

33

Saudi Arabia

5.04

34

Thailand

4.93

35

Indonesia

4.92

36

Egypt

4.84

37

Kenya

4.81 (continued)

1.3 Internet Development in Representative Countries and Regions Table 1.7 (continued)

31

Ranking

Country

Score

38

South Africa

4.62

39

Nigeria

4.59

40

Ukraine

4.50

41

Iran

4.49

41

Chile

4.49

43

Switzerland

4.31

44

Mexico

4.06

45

Pakistan

4.04

46

Cuba

3.51

47

Argentina

3.10

48

Ethiopia

2.35

1.3 Internet Development in Representative Countries and Regions By comparison, as the scores of Internet Development Index in 48 countries reveal, developed countries and regions in North America, Europe and Asia maintain the high level of Internet development on average. Developing countries and regions in Latin America and Africa develop quickly in Internet. The Report selects 10 representative countries and regions (e.g. the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Japan, India, Russia, Vietnam, Mexico, Kenya and the European Union) and analyzes their Internet development. In 2021, the scores of various indicators in Internet Development Index of representative countries and regions were normalized.

1.3.1 The United States Continues to Take the Lead in the World in Internet Comprehensive Strength The United States has been leading the innovation and development of world Internet. In “The Scores of World Internet Development Index”, the United States still ranks the 1st in the world. Concretely, it ranks the 4th in the score of information infrastructure index, and the 1st in the scores of innovation capacity index, industrial development index, Internet application index, cybersecurity index and cyberspace governance index. Figure 1.1 shows the scores of Internet Development Index of the United States. The United States continuously consolidates the construction of Internet infrastructure. In 2020, in order to advance the R&D of domestic 5G technology and promote 5G technology at home and abroad, the United States successively released National Strategy To Secure 5G, Promoting United States International Leadership in

32 Table 1.8 The scores of cyberspace governance index in 48 countries

1 Overview Ranking

Country

Score

1

The United States

9.65

2

China

9.59

3

The United Kingdom

8.96

4

Germany

8.86

5

Russia

8.63

6

Canada

8.62

7

South Korea

8.28

8

Japan

8.23

9

France

8.15

10

The Netherlands

7.86

11

Singapore

7.76

12

Estonia

7.53

12

Sweden

7.53

12

India

7.53

15

Israel

7.50

16

Italy

7.43

17

New Zealand

7.42

18

The United Arab Emirates

7.40

19

Ireland

7.34

20

Switzerland

7.31

21

Denmark

7.29

22

Belgium

7.28

22

Australia

7.28

24

Spain

7.23

25

Finland

7.13

26

Norway

7.10

27

Portugal

7.09

28

Saudi Arabia

7.03

29

Indonesia

7.00

30

Brazil

6.90

31

Iran

6.80

32

Türkiye

6.77

33

South Africa

6.75

34

Poland

6.66

35

Malaysia

6.62

36

Argentina

6.61

37

Thailand

6.53 (continued)

1.3 Internet Development in Representative Countries and Regions Table 1.8 (continued)

33

Ranking

Country

Score

38

Egypt

6.49

39

Ukraine

6.46

40

Vietnam

6.44

41

Kazakhstan

6.34

42

Chile

6.28

43

Kenya

6.21

44

Pakistan

6.20

45

Mexico

6.16

46

Cuba

6.09

47

Nigeria

5.99

48

Ethiopia

5.75

Fig. 1.1 The scores of internet development index of the United States

5G Act and Secure 5G and Beyond Act. In May 2021, the White House of the United States published American Jobs Plan, which intended to invest 100 billion U.S. dollars to develop broadband and ensure the security of network system.31 Simultaneously, in line with the American Rescue Plan, American government would invest one billion U.S. dollars to establish a technological-modernization-aimed fund to upgrade the security of cloud underlying architecture.32 To enable remote areas to access external information via Internet connection and provide people with more preferential broadband services, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, firstly proposed a satellite Internet program and vigorously implemented it. On May 26, 2021, SpaceX 31

FACT SHEET: The American Jobs Plan, MARCH 31, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/bri efing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/. 32 President Biden Announces American Rescue Plan, January 20, 2021, https://www.whitehouse. gov/briefing-room/legislation/2021/01/20/president-biden-announces-american-rescue-plan/.

34

1 Overview

launched 29th batch of Starlink satellites. This was deployed by SpaceX since the launch of the first-batch Starlink satellites (totally 60) in May 2019. Currently, 1735 Starlink satellites are in orbit.33 Noticeably, the United States is beset by digital divide. Brookings Institution, an American think tank, stresses that in the COVID19 pandemic, owing to large digital divide in the United States, colored race, the elderly, low-income population and residents in rural areas have no access to digital products and services, and some citizens cannot apply for unemployment relief or receive remote learning and telemedicine services. The United States leads the list in comprehensive innovation strength in the world. In 2021, Quacquarelli Symonds, a global higher education research institution, released the QS World University Rankings by Subject, in which American universities ranked top, with biological science, computer science and information system and engineering in the lead. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020. As the report evinces, the United States ranks the 3rd in innovation capacity, the 4th in innovation input and the 5th in innovation output among 131 economies.34 The United States continually optimizes the layout of cutting-edge technologies like 5G, AI and quantum computing, and ranks the 1st in the development of Internet industry in the world. In September 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed the Quantum Network Infrastructure Act, which advised the United States to allocate 100 million U.S. dollars in fiscal year 2021–2025 to improve national quantum network infrastructure and promote the application of quantum technology. In December 2020, the White House of the United States issued an executive order, which set the catalogue and timetable for AI application and started a project to ensure the reliable use of AI by federal government. The United States steadily enhances national cybersecurity capability and maintains a leading role in this regard in the world. In 2021, in response to cybersecurity incidents, e.g. SolarWinds Event, Microsoft Exchange Vulnerability and the blackmail attack on the U.S. oil pipeline operator, the United States immediately took several protective measures. In January 2021, the U.S. Department of State established the Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies to combat the threats to cybersecurity and from emerging technologies. In March 2021, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence of the United States released its Final Report, which proposed to organize a special working team and a full-time operation and maintenance center to combat digital fraud, so as to better protect the databases of the United States. Besides, Final Report prioritized data security in the rules for foreign-investment screening, the management of supply-chain risks and legislation on national data protection. In May 2021, U.S. President Biden signed Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, which required federal agencies of the United States to formulate implemental plans based on zero-trust security architecture and reinforce American government’s cybersecurity modernization, software 33

Rocket Launch: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink-28, May 26, 2021, https://www.kennedyspacecenter. com/launches-and-events/events-calendar/2021/may/rocket-launch-spacex-falcon-9-starlink-28. 34 The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020, https://globalinnovationindex.org/Home.

1.3 Internet Development in Representative Countries and Regions

35

Fig. 1.2 The scores of internet development index of China

supply-chain security and incident detection and response capability as well as overall resistance to threats.

1.3.2 Internet Development in China Comes to the Stage of Enhancing Quality and Improving Efficiency In Internet development, China comes second to the United States. In “The Scores of Specific Indexes”, China ranks the 5th in the score of information infrastructure index, the 4th in the score of innovation capacity index, the 2nd in the score of industrial development index, the 2nd in the score of Internet application index, the 30th in the score of cybersecurity index, and the 2nd in the score of cyberspace governance index. Figure 1.2 shows the scores of Internet Development Index of China. China progresses stably in the construction of Internet infrastructure and accelerates the deployment of mobile infrastructure and application infrastructure. Particularly, China ranks the 1st in the world in the speed and scale of 5G network construction. Statistically, by June 2021, the number of 5G base stations totaled 961,000 in China, with full coverage of all cities above the prefecture level.35 Satellite Internet develops fast. In April 2020, satellite Internet was listed in seven key fields of “new infrastructure”. Since then, the construction of satellite Internet in China sped up. According to the report released by GNSS and LBS Association of China in May 2021, in 2020, China’s satellite navigation and location service industry achieved a

35

Data Source: “The State Council Information Office Holds a Press Conference on Industrial & IT Development in the First Half of the Year”, http://www.scio.gov.cn/xwfbh/xwbfbh/wqfbh/44687/ 46299/index.htm.

36

1 Overview

total output value of 403.3 billion yuan, with an increase of c. 16.9% year on year.36 Overall network coverage rate and service capacity continue to improve. According to the data released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), by June 2021, China had obtained 62,023/32 IPv6 address blocks.37 China continues to strengthen scientific and technological innovation and accelerate the construction of innovation-oriented country, which constantly fortifies independent innovation capacity. According to the report Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020, China ranks the 14th in the world in the score of innovation capability index, for two consecutive years. It also ranks the 1st in the world in the scores of key output indexes, such as the number of patent applications, utility models, trademarks, industrial design and export of creative products, and the 1st in middle-income economies in the score of innovation quality index, for eight consecutive years. China maintains a strong momentum in the development of Internet-based industries, with cutting-edge technologies and industries like AI developing rapidly. Statistically, in 2020, there were more than 40,000 above-designated-scale enterprises in software and information technology service industries in China, whose accumulated software business income reached 8161.6 billion yuan, with an increase of 13.3% over 2019.38 China’s AI industry develops rapidly. As IDC’s report suggested, in 2020, China’s AI infrastructure market achieved a scale of 3.93 billion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 26.8%, which would reach 7.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, as estimated.39 In Internet application, firstly, Fintech advances quickly, and Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) arouses wide attention in various countries. Since DCEP was piloted in 2020, China has continuously expanded the pilot. Provinces and cities that take in part in the pilot basically cover the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, Central China, Western China, Northeastern China and Northwestern China. By June 2021, the number of pilot cases had exceeded 1.32 million, and more than 20.87 million personal wallets opened, with a total transaction amount of c. 34.5 billion yuan.40 Secondly, industrial digitization develops in a faster and all-round way. Agricultural digitization steadily progresses. In the first quarter of 2021, national rural online retail sales amounted to 439.79 billion yuan, 36

Xinhuanet: “The Total Output Value of China’s Satellite Navigation & Location Service Industry Achieved 403.3 Billion Yuan”, May 18, 2021, http://www.xinhuanet.com/tech/2021-05/18/c_1127 460035.htm. 37 Data Source: The 48th Statistical Report on China Internet Network Development released by China Internet Network Information Center. 38 The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China: Statistical Bulletin of Software and Information Technology Service Industry in 2020, January 29, 2021, https://www.miit.gov.cn/jgsj/xxjsfzs/xyyx/art/2021/art_37ffeab7f1134ae6a2f6c3c9756 910f6.html. 39 Chinanews.com: “Report: In 2020, China’s AI Servers Account for Around One Third of Global Market”, December 16, 2020, http://tradeinservices.mofcom.gov.cn/article/news/gnxw/202 012/112166.html. 40 Data Source: White Paper on the Progress of Research & Development of E-CNY in China published by the People’s Bank of China.

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with a year-on-year increase of 35.3% and an average growth rate of 14.7% in 2019– 2021. National online retail sales of agricultural products reached 105.58 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 4.9%.41 Intelligent manufacturing deepens. In 2020, in China, the digitization rate of production equipment of above-designatedscale industrial enterprises jumped to 49.4%, and the numerical control rate of key processes rose to 51.7%. Thirdly, the level of e-government improves firmly. The construction of digital government tremendously optimizes digital business environment. Zhejiang, Shanghai and other regions continually strengthen the construction of digital government and further ameliorate business environment, aiming to realize “one time for handling affairs” and “one card for multiple businesses”. In cybersecurity, China sustainably enhances cybersecurity protection, and cybersecurity industry develops fast. As estimated, during the “13th Five-Year Plan” Period, China’s cybersecurity industry displayed a trend of high-speed growth. Enterprises engaged in cybersecurity-related business exceeded 3000,42 whose businesses covered cybersecurity device, service, software, integration and other links.

1.3.3 The United Kingdom Takes the Lead in Cybersecurity Strength In “The Scores of World Internet Development Index”, the United Kingdom ranks the 3rd in the world. Specifically, it ranks the 24th in the score of information infrastructure index, the 7th in the score of innovation capacity index, the 8th in the score of industrial development index, the 4th in the score of Internet application index, the 3rd in the score of cybersecurity index and the 3rd in the score of cyberspace governance index. Figure 1.3 shows the scores of Internet Development Index of the United Kingdom. Presently, the United Kingdom makes remarkable progress in mobile and fixed network connections, yet lags behind other European countries in all-optical network coverage. Now, British mobile communication service providers are mainly British Telecom (BT), Vodafone, Telefónica UK Limited (O2), EE and 3UK. In 5G construction, in July 2020, British government announced the launch of “5G Create” Fund of 30 million pounds. As a part of “5G Testbeds and Trial Programme” (5GTT), “5G Create” means an innovation project that helps to develop 5G technology. According to the Network Readiness Index 2020, the United Kingdom scores 76.27 in network readiness index, ranking the 10th. Its weaknesses lie in personal skills and privacy protection.

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The Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China: “Online Retail Market Advances Steadily in the First Quarter”, April 30, 2021, http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-04/30/content_5604 116.htm. 42 People’s Daily Online: “Cybersecurity Industry in China Grows at a High Speed”, December 3, 2020, http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2020/1203/c1001-31953703.html.

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Fig. 1.3 The scores of internet development index of the United Kingdom

British Internet innovation capacity rests on favorable business environment and strong policy support. The United Kingdom boasts a leading innovation-driven economy in the world, which provides a lenient and flexible regulatory environment for Internet innovation and assists domestic technological enterprises to attract foreign investment and enlarge export. In June 2020, the United Kingdom staged “technology trade strategy”, stating that it would establish a digital trade network in the Asia-Pacific Region (e.g. Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore) in the future, in a bid to help domestic technological enterprises enter relevant markets. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom attracts foreign direct investment in key areas such as 5G, IoT, photonics and mixed reality. To augment the UK’s strength in science, research and innovation and better adapt to “new normal” in the post-pandemic era, in July 2020, the United Kingdom released UK Research and Development Roadmap, declaring that it would invest another 7 billion pounds in R&D from 2021 to 2022 and increase the total R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. Eight British cybersecurity corporations are listed in the Hot 150 Cybersecurity Companies. The United Kingdom strives to build “a leading full-spectrum network power” and continues to strengthen the construction of defensive and offensive network capabilities. The University of Bristol of the United Kingdom successfully establishes “super safe quantum network” that works in cities in Bristol. The network can connect more than eight users within a radius of 17 km, realize the application of quantum cryptography among multiple users, and ensure the security of quantum Internet. The experiment is regarded as a landmark in the course of full-quantum-Internet construction. In cyberspace governance, in May 2021, British government announced the forthcoming of a new law Online Safety Bill. The Bill stipulates that if social-media enterprises fail to root out racism, hate crime and other abuses, they may be fined 10% of the maximum turnover or 18 million pounds and face actio criminalis.

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1.3.4 Japan Accelerates the Construction of Digital Society In “The Scores of World Internet Development Index”, Japan ranks the 11th in the world. Specifically, it ranks the 13th in the score of information infrastructure index, the 2nd in the score of innovation capacity index, the 17th in the score of industrial development index, the 10th in the score of Internet application index, the 13th in the score of cybersecurity index and the 8th in the score of cyberspace governance index. Figure 1.4 shows the scores of Internet Development Index of Japan. Japan owns complete infrastructure. Presently, the infrastructure of Japan’s optical-fiber communication is a backbone network that only comprises IPv6, and IPv6 infrastructure is basically constructed. In Japan, four state-owned telecom operators have furnished daily IPv6 services to citizen’s mobile phones. In 2020, SoftBank and KDDI, two major mobile operators in Japan, announced that they planned to invest 38 billion U.S. dollars in 5G network in next ten years, so as to keep pace with the world’s top level in the field of ultra-high speed mobile communications. Simultaneously, Japan quickens the R&D of 6G. In the number of top 500 supercomputing corporations, Japan follows after China and the United States. However, the network download rates of fixed broadband and mobile broadband in Japan remain low. Japan energetically promotes the development and application of Internet technology. Japan forges top-class technological strength in AI, quantum computing, ICT, basic research and other fields. Particularly, the R&D investment accounts for a large proportion of GDP. Under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan steps up the efforts to improve legal environment for digital society, with deeper penetration of Internet application. In the COVID-19 pandemic, IT enterprises in Kanagawa successively develop teleworking-service systems to meet the needs of enterprises for teleworking, such as handling customers’ consultation and providing

Fig. 1.4 The scores of internet development index of Japan

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services free of charge. Besides, Japan increases capital investment to ICT application in schools and the information-based development of small and medium-sized enterprises. In recent years, Japan has attached more importance to cybersecurity and carried out long-term and in-depth cooperation with the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. In 2020, Japan issued The Act on Promoting the Development, Supply and Introduction of Specific Advanced Information Communications Technology Application Systems, which certified whether cutting-edge-technology R&D enterprises could meet the requirements for cybersecurity and provide stable services, highlighted cutting-edge-technology R&D enterprises in the fields of 5G and UAV, strictly prevented the leakage of cutting-edge-technology information, and boosted the healthy development of cutting-edge-technology enterprises. In cyberspace governance, in May 2021, Japan passed six acts related to digital reform and decided to organize Digital Agency in September 2021, which would become a control tower for digital reform in Japan. In June 2020, Japan revised the Act on the Protection of Personal Information and The Copyright Law to better meet new requirements of the development of Internet and digital technology for the protection of personal information and copyright. In September 2020, Japan started to implement a package of measures to combat cyber violence. Japan explicitly stipulates for the first time that perpetrators of cyber violence have their mobile phone numbers and other personal information legally disclosed, and network platforms have the obligation to provide the above-stated information when necessary.

1.3.5 Internet Application in India Develops Rapidly In “The Scores of World Internet Development Index”, India ranks the 19th in the world. Specifically, it ranks the 35th in the score of information infrastructure index, the 16th in the score of innovation capacity index, the 19th in the score of industrial development index, the 13th in the score of Internet application index, the 31st in the score of cybersecurity index and the 12th in the score of cyberspace governance index. Figure 1.5 shows the scores of Internet Development Index of India. According to The Boao Forum for Asia Innovation Report 2020, India keeps ahead of other Asian countries in the performance of innovation. In April 2021, India set up I-Hub QTF (Quantum Technology Foundation), a quantum-technology innovation center, which focused on developing quantum computers, quantum communication devices and systems and researching new quantum materials and sensors. To foster the development of Indian manufacturing industry, in 2020, Indian government declared a plan to reward smartphone manufacturers who increased output. What were used as incentives accounted for 4–6% of the value of mobile phones. Major electronic manufacturers like Apple, Xiaomi and HP all operate factories in India. Yet, in the first half of 2021, India suffered a heavy blow by the COVID-19 pandemic, which immensely buffeted relevant enterprises. As Indian

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Fig. 1.5 The scores of internet development index of India

government suspended the import of Wi-Fi modules from other countries, manufacturers like Dell, HP, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and Lenovo had to postpone the launch of new products in India. E-commerce has great potential for growth in India. In recent years, the annual retail sales of e-commerce business in India reached 30 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for c. 3% of the total retail sales in consumer market. Predictably, India’s e-commerce business will expand at a rate of 30% every year, and by 2026, online retail sales will exceed 200 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon is the largest online shopping platform in India, with 323 million monthly active users. Walmart’s Flipkart has 231 million monthly active users. In digital payment, Research and Markets, an international market research institution, released Report on the Trend of Indian Digital Payment Market. As the Report demonstrated, more than 80% of urban citizens would choose digital payment by the end of 2020, and the transaction volume of digital payment industry would reach 700 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2022. In cybersecurity, Indian cybersecurity enterprises possess tremendous strength. By October 2020, Tata Consultancy Services, the largest Indian operator in India, had established ten cybersecurity centers in the world to provide cybersecurity services for corporate customers.

1.3.6 Russia Makes Steady Progress in Internet Development In “The Scores of World Internet Development Index”, Russia ranks the 22nd in the world. Specifically, it ranks the 33rd in the score of information infrastructure index, the 19th in the score of innovation capacity index, the 34th in the score of industrial development index, the 18th in the score of Internet application index, the 19th in the score of cybersecurity index and the 5th in the score of cyberspace governance index. Figure 1.6 shows the scores of Internet Development Index of Russia.

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Fig. 1.6 The scores of internet development index of Russia

In infrastructure, Russia launches 5G-network pilot and starts planning satellite Internet. In July 2020, MTS, a Russian telecom network operator giant, obtained the first 5G license, which allowed it to build 5G commercial networks in 83 regions of Russia. In March 2021, MTS staged a 5G pilot network for mass consumers in Moscow, which became the first 5G pilot network in Russia. In 2021, Russia effectuated “Sfera” Program and built a satellite constellation that comprised 640 satellites. In April 2021, Roscosmos announced to realize the full coverage of Russia in satellite communication and broadband satellite Internet by 2024 as planned. In Internet application, e-commerce develops dramatically in Russia. According to the data of Russian Association of Internet Trade Companies, in 2020, the scale of e-commerce in Russia reached 3.221 trillion rubles, accounting for 9.6% of the total sales of domestic retail market. As estimated, by the end of 2021, the scale of e-commerce in Russia would reach 3.745 trillion rubles. In particular, in 2020, the transaction volume of Russian domestic e-commerce market achieved 2.781 trillion rubles, accounting for 86% of the total sales of Russian e-commerce market. Simultaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the shortage of goods and the block to transportation, with the proportion of cross-border trade dropping from 29% in 2019 to 14%. In industrial development, Russia implements the import substitution strategy for domestic software and hardware products in a fast way, establishes “Information Communications Technology Import Substitution Management Center” (TsKICT), organizes “Domestic Software Developer Association”, and builds “Russian Software Compatibility Directory Website”, so as to provide convenient services for the promotion of domestic software in Russia. In May 2020, Russia released the timetable for the shift to domestic software and hardware products, and would complete the shift to domestic devices by January 1, 2025, as planned. In cybersecurity, Russia continues to improve the deployment in cybersecurity and regards cybersecurity as a national strategy. In July 2021, Russia promulgated

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the latest National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation, which listed information security as one of the nine strategic priorities to ensure national security. Russian government establishes a national domain-name management center, attracts large corporations like Rostelecom and Rostec to participate in Internet construction, and forges Russian national domain name system. Noticeably, “.pf” domain name effectively ensures the stable operation of “Runet” under external impacts. In cyberspace governance, Russia vigorously improves domestic governance level and actively participates in global cyberspace governance. Additionally, Russia enhances data governance and social-media regulation. In February 2021, Russia released The Federal Administrative Crime Law to increase the punishment for violations of data-processing regulations. In April 2021, Putin signed The Basic Principles of State Policy on International Information Security, which clarified Russia’s basic views on the nature of international information security as well as Russia’s policies and goals.

1.3.7 Vietnam Sees Fast Development of Internet Economy In “The Scores of World Internet Development Index”, Vietnam ranks the 32nd in the world. Specifically, it ranks the 32nd in the score of information infrastructure index, the 36th in the score of innovation capacity index, the 21st in the score of industrial development index, the 26th in the score of Internet application index, the 27th in the score of cybersecurity index and the 40th in the score of cyberspace governance index. Figure 1.7 shows the scores of Internet Development Index of Vietnam. In recent years, Internet has injected vitality into Vietnamese economic, cultural and social development. In 2021, Vietnam started to deploy 5G network on a large scale. According to the research of Vietnam’s National Institute of Information and Communications Strategy, by 2025, the contribution rate of 5G to Vietnamese GDP

Fig. 1.7 The scores of internet development index of Vietnam

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growth would jump to 7.34%. In 2020, the total business revenue of Vietnamese Internet economy totaled 14 billion U.S. dollars, of which the business revenue of e-commerce hit a record high of 7 billion U.S. dollars.43 According to the statistics of Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the turnover of various markets in Hanoi diminished by 50–80%. Meanwhile, some enterprises realized a growth of 20–30% in the business income from online sales on e-commerce platforms. According to the research of Kantar Worldpanel, the online orders of e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Tiki and Lazada soared. Tiki received 3000–4000 new orders per minute at whiles. According to the statistics of Digital 2021, the number of Internet users in Vietnam amounts to 68.72 million, accounting for around 70% of the total population. 94% of Internet users surf the Internet for an average of six hours a day. In the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnamese technological enterprises and media departments broadcast TV courses at appropriate times, and provided auxiliary educational management for tens of thousands of schools as well as host computer and broadband services for free, which promoted the popularization of network applications in relation to learning and life in Vietnam. In order to safeguard cybersecurity, especially the security of major international events hosted by Vietnam, Vietnamese governmental departments and branches as well as various regions deploy Security Operation Centers (SOCs) with the help of Information Security Agency to screen and address malicious software in Vietnam’s cyberspace, and publish technological standards on terminal, base station and 5G network service quality.

1.3.8 In Latin America, Mexico Enjoys Rapid Internet Development In “The Scores of World Internet Development Index”, Mexico ranks the 38th in the world. Concretely, it ranks the 34th in the score of information infrastructure index, the 32nd in the score of innovation capacity index, the 30th in the score of industrial development index, the 23rd in the score of Internet application index, the 44th in the score of cybersecurity index and the 45th in the score of cyberspace governance index. Figure 1.8 shows the scores of Internet Development Index of Mexico. According to Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020, Mexico’s rankings rises to the 55th in the world and the 2nd in Latin America (second to Chile) in comprehensive strength. Located in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Zone, Mexico possesses the advantage for opening foreign-funded enterprises and attracts the investment from Microsoft, Equinix and other data-center corporations. Accordingly, Mexico boasts

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“Vietnamese Government Strives to Create All Conditions for Internet Development to Achieve Universal Internet Popularization”, published at Communist Party of Vietnam Online Newspaper, December 20, 2020. https://cn-daihoi13.dangcongsan.vn/news/story-1045.

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Fig. 1.8 The scores of internet development index of Mexico

one of three Latin American countries with private R&D corporations, in comparison with most countries that promote innovation and R&D with public investment. Mexico owns two Unicorns in digital industry, i.e. Kavak, a second-hand car platform, and Bitso, a virtual currency exchange. Kavak’s total financing exceeds 900 million U.S. dollars. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerates the development of Mexican Internet economy and the course of corporate digital transformation. In Mexico, four industries, i.e. e-commerce, online game, social-media advertising and Fintech, develop fastest. Particularly, in Fintech, Mexico is a front-runner in Latin America. The creation of Banco Azteca Application Programming Interface (API) Platform signals the transformation of Mexican financial industry. In line with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, Mexico establishes a cyber-incident-response mechanism with the United States and Canada to bolster the cooperation in identifying and combating malicious code attacks. Internally, Mexico continuously enhances the training of cybersecurity among enterprises and significantly improves the level of cybersecurity.

1.3.9 Kenya Takes the Lead in Africa in Internet Strength In “The Scores of World Internet Development Index”, Kenya ranks the 44th in the world. To be specific, it ranks the 42nd in the score of information infrastructure index, the 44th in the score of innovation capacity index, the 39th in the score of industrial development index, the 46th in the score of Internet application index, the 37th in the score of cybersecurity index and the 43rd in the score of cyberspace governance index. Figure 1.9 shows the scores of Internet Development Index of Kenya. Kenya is one of the largest mobile network markets in Africa, with a high penetration rate and a popularization rate of mobile phones and Internet. According

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Fig. 1.9 The scores of internet development index of Kenya

to Network Readiness Index 2020, Kenya scores 43.22 in comprehensive index and ranks the 82nd in the world, with good performance in government-level and business-level Internet applications. Telkom Kenya has applied Google’s Project Loon network service to achieve 4G mobile-service coverage. In March 2021, a Kenyan communication operator staged a 5G Service Launch Ceremony in the capital Nairobi, with Kenya becoming the second country in Sub-Saharan Africa to launch 5G services after South Africa. Now, the scale of Kenyan e-commerce market keeps expanding, with local ecommerce market dominated by local African e-commerce giants. Kenyan mobile financial service plays a leading role in ITFIN. Notably, mobile payment and cashloan services represented by M-Pesa provide convenient financial services for the public. Presently, Kenya faces a substantial number of cybersecurity threats. In September 2020, Kaspersky Lab published new data, which confirmed that Kenya encountered more than 25% of two million cyberattacks in Africa. In the second quarter of 2021, Kenya suffered more than 500,000 phishing attacks.

1.3.9.1

The European Union Expedites Digital Transformation Strategy

The European Union basically realizes full-coverage of network. Yet, the deployment of optical-fiber network and 5G network lags behind, with the prominent problem of out-of-date communication devices. In the COVID-19 pandemic, online consumption of videos and games expanded. Therefore, many online video-service providers like Netflix, YouTube and Disney had to lower the video-code standards in Europe and adjust video definition from “high definition” to “standard definition”, so as to address the problem of network overload. In this regard, EU member states reached an agreement to start an economic-recovery fund of up to 750 billion euros and increase investment in scientific and technological areas like 5G, 6G and AI.

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The European Union attaches great importance to personal data privacy, monopolistic rules and data security, and adopts a strong-regulation strategy. In recent years, the European Union has released many documents to strengthen data-security management, e.g. General Data Protection Regulation, EU Regulation on the Free Flow of Non-personal Data and EU Cybersecurity Act. In December 2020, the European Union issued The EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade. Giving suggestions on regulation, investment and policy tools, The EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade aimed to improve EU’s cyber resilience, technological sovereignty and leadership, and build EU’s capacity in preventing, curbing and addressing cybersecurity incidents. Additionally, the European Commission passed a proposal to revise Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems (NIS 2 Directive) to solve cybersecurity problems on supply chain and supplier relations. The European Union prioritizes the digital transformation of industries. Within the framework of “strategic autonomy”, the European Union accelerates the construction of Digital Sovereignty for Europe in an all-round way, and releases master plans to guide Europe to adapt to the digital era, such as Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, A New Industrial Strategy for Europe, A European Strategy for Data and White Paper on Artificial Intelligence. These aim to re-define and enlarge digital sovereignty, quicken the launch of optical-fiber and 5G networks, and invigorate European economy hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Union has placed a premium on Internet governance and accelerated making rules in the field of digital economy. In December 2020, the European Union published two drafts of Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, which strengthened the regulation of Internet content and monopolistic behaviors respectively. In April 2021, the European Union launched the proposal of Artificial Intelligence Act, which took different regulatory measures for AI systems at different risk levels. In 2020, the European Union successively started antitrust investigations against Internet giants like Google and Facebook, and imposed huge fines on them.

1.4 Trends in World Internet Development In the post-pandemic era, international landscape evolves dramatically, and unilateralism and protectionism emerge, which cripple global industrial chains and supply chains. New-round scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation deepen, data resources become new production factors, information technology fuels new innovation, and digital economy serves as a new economic engine. Cybersecurity faces new challenges, which profoundly reshapes global economic pattern, interests pattern and security pattern. In the future, various countries in the world should esteem Internet as common home to mankind, enhance the awareness of “a community with a shared future in cyberspace”, jointly address the risks and challenges in cyberspace with a more positive attitude, jointly build a peaceful, safe, open, cooperative and orderly cyberspace, and work together to create a better future for mankind.

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1.4.1 The Competition on Digital Infrastructure Intensifies and Necessitates Deeper Interconnectivity Digital infrastructure becomes increasingly ubiquitous, with more prominent status and value. As the development pattern of space-air-ground integrated network (SAGIN) further improves, SAGIN serves as an important engine or arena, in which various countries vie for technological dominance, forge new economic advantages and obtain discourse power in global development. Several countries politicize the construction of digital infrastructure, which aggravates the fragmentation of cyberspace and polarizes related technologies, standards and security issues. The disparity in digital development enlarges between developed and developing countries. China proposes to make more active, comprehensive, coordinated and inclusive policies, quicken the construction of global digital infrastructure, continuously improve interconnectivity, and keep the arteries of economic activities unclogged. China promotes cooperation among various countries in the field of communication infrastructure such as optical-fiber backbone network and international submarine cable, and expands Internet access and connectivity on the basis of respecting national cyber sovereignty and national cyber policies, so that more developing countries and more people can share development opportunities from Internet. China encourages experience-sharing and cooperation in responding to public emergencies such as pandemics and natural disasters with the use of digital technologies, and improves public services such as culture and education, environmental protection, urban planning, community management and health care with the use of digital technologies. China calls on various countries to ensure the availability and reliability of basic Internet resources and advance jointly managing and fairly distributing basic Internet resources among international community. China actively applies laws, regulations and standard rules to guide new application of new technologies such as AI, IoT and next-generation communication network and to stimulate international cooperation in technological standards and ethical norms. China promotes cooperative initiatives such as digital technology for tourism recovery and boosts common development of global digital infrastructure.

1.4.2 Digital Transformation Progresses Quickly in Various Countries and Necessitates Common Prosperity The cross-border integration of new-generation information technology, biotechnology, new-energy technology and new-material technology breeds the innovation on future technologies and the development of emerging industries, continually expands new boundary of human existence and development, helps people better understand “deep sea, deep space, deep earth and deep sky”, and deeply alters

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people’s production and life. New technologies, new business forms and new platforms like 5G, AI and smart city thrive. “Non-contact economy” like online shopping, online education and telemedicine develops fast in an all-round way. Digital economy integrates with and penetrates into other industries, giving new impetus for global economic growth. It is noteworthy that some countries view technological development as a matter of values and ideology, and restrict regular technological cooperation and exchanges between boffins. This impairs global technological and economic cooperation, intensifies technological and economic confrontation among countries, and amplifies the risk of global economic cold war. Digital development remains unbalanced and inadequate in various countries, and digital divide between regions, groups and enterprises tends to widen. China proposes to strengthen cooperation in the digital field, seize the opportunities of new-round scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, enlarge technological exchanges and cooperation, share the experience of using digital technology to combat the pandemic and realize economic recovery, release the potential of digital economy, bridge digital divide, give full play to digital economy’s role in empowering various industries, and provide new impetus for global economic recovery. China calls on various countries to unclog trade channels and reduce market access barriers and other barriers. To promote the development of cross-border ecommerce, China explores to establish information sharing and mutual trust and certification mechanisms, and encourages the use of safe and reliable digital means to facilitate cross-border trade. China enlarges the exchanges and sharing of experience in Internet-assisted targeted poverty alleviation to advance international cooperation in poverty alleviation. China advocates the development of products and services suitable for the elderly, the disabled, women and children, and adopts a variety of policies and measures and technological means to improve the digital skills of vulnerable groups and promote the popularization and progress of public digital literacy. China gropes for the formulation of legal standards and principles on digital currency in an open and inclusive manner. China gives play to the driving role of digital economy, creates new development momentum with the use of scientific and technological innovation and digital transformation, consolidates cooperation in the fields of digital economy and climate change, and fosters the robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive development in the world.

1.4.3 Cross-cultural Communication Encounters New Challenges and Necessitates Exchanges and Mutual Learning Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, global economic development remains listless. In foreign policies, some countries tend to adopt more conservative and xenophobic stances. This undermines the groundwork of international communication and cooperation and increases the uncertainty of cross-cultural communication to

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varying degree. Simultaneously, governments of various countries continue to reinforce the governance of Internet content and launch intensive activities in content review, advertising and commercial law-enforcement, in order to deepen the reform of international media landscape. China proposes to build a bridge for international communication via Internet, respect the diversity of cyber culture, calls on countries to tap their excellent cultural resources for cyber exchanges and cooperation and mutual learning among civilizations, forges an inclusive, open and diverse platform and mechanism for cyber cultural exchanges, in a bid to promote emotional and spiritual exchanges among people of all countries. China continues to organize cultural exchanges in various forms, support exchanges and cooperation in education, culture, tourism, sports, media, women and other fields, and promote non-governmental friendship. China gives play to the advantages of Internet communication platforms, disseminates excellent Chinese culture among people of all countries, and popularizes excellent world cultures among Chinese people, so as to jointly boost the prosperity and development of cyber culture, enrich people’s spiritual world, further the progress of human civilization, and build Internet into a major form for the dissemination of excellent human culture.

1.4.4 The Militarization of Cybersecurity Accelerates and Necessitates the Orderly Development of Cyberspace The means of cyberspace warfare features concealment, which becomes the first choice for various countries to mitigate the pressure of geopolitical competition and expand national strategic space. Several countries intend to resolve cyber disputes with their military strength, which aggrandizes the militarization of global cyberspace. In the future, more countries endeavor to safeguard the security of supply chains of them and their allies, and strengthen the localization and autonomy of their supply chains. In cyberspace, non-technological confrontation intensifies, global economy tends to move toward “limited globalization”, and the trend of fragmentation in cyberspace becomes more prominent. Software supply chain becomes more complex and diverse, making it harder to protect overall security of information systems, with emphasis on the protection of personal information in national strategic layout. China upholds the idea of open and cooperative cyberspace security, attaches equal importance to security and development, and jointly safeguards the peace and security in cyberspace. China encourages cooperation and dialogue at global, regional, multilateral, bilateral and multi-party levels, jointly maintains the peace and stability in cyberspace, enhances strategic trust among countries, combats cyberattacks and cyber deterrence, deepens international cooperation in cracking down on cybercrime and cyber terrorism, curbs the use of information technology to take part in acts

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endangering the security and social and public interests of other countries, prevents arms races in cyberspace, and creates a peaceful environment for development.

1.4.5 Trust Deficit in Cyberspace Enlarges and Necessitates the Realization of Fairness and Justice The adjustment and change of international landscape in cyberspace speed up. Various countries face widening trust deficit in cyberspace, and trust mechanism in cyberspace needs to be built urgently. Centering on such issues as digital economy, data security, platform governance, technology governance and ICT supply chain security, the rule-making accelerates. Green digital cooperation provides new opportunities for international governance. The United Nations and other international organizations have an active part in facilitating cyberspace governance, and governance model of multilateral and multi-party participation generates positive effects on cyberspace, in which the role of government in governance significantly swells. As large Internet corporations continue to enlarge their influence, the game between governments and Internet enterprises re-forges the landscape of cyberspace governance. China embraces multilateral and multi-party participation in international cyberspace governance, adheres to digital innovation and inclusive development, strengthens dialogue and consultation, further opens up a new paradigm of digital cooperation, and jointly creates a new pattern of global cyberspace governance. China supports the formulation of universally-accepted rules, norms and principles of conduct for responsible states in cyberspace within the framework of the United Nations. China gives play to the role of governments, international organizations, Internet enterprises, technological communities, social organizations and individual citizens, and jointly participates in international cyberspace governance. China builds multi-channel communication platforms and newly initiates assistance and training projects for international cyberspace governance within multilateral frameworks like the United Nations, so as to help developing countries in need improve their capacity in participating in international governance. On the basis of mutual respect and trust, China further creates a new environment for digital cooperation, fosters the reform of global Internet governance systems, jointly constructs a peaceful, safe, open and cooperative cyberspace, and establishes a multilateral, democratic and transparent global Internet governance system.

Chapter 2

World Information Infrastructure Construction

2.1 Outline Presently, human society has entered a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. The construction of new information infrastructure represented by 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial Internet gives a new impetus for global economic growth. The sustainable development and accelerated evolution of information infrastructure have laid a foundation for the advent of global digital economy. Developed countries have accelerated the deployment of new-generation network facilities, big data, AI and other technologies, while emerging and developing countries have strengthened their investment in the infrastructure in digital transformation to continuously improve their competitive advantages. Information infrastructure is facing great changes such as the transformation of old and new kinetic energy, the adjustment of development focus and the innovation of operation models. Its endogenous kinetic energy expands from traditional network technologies to new-generation information technologies such as big data, AI, cloud computing and IoT. The focus of development shifts from traditional network indicators such as bandwidth and speed to ecological indicators that closely relate to urban management and the services for people’s livelihood. Business operators extend from traditional telecom operators to Internet enterprises, industrial leading enterprises and other entities, which forms multiple development drivers, multi-dimensional evaluation standards and diverse service forms.

© Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, World Internet Development Report 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7_2

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2.2 The Evolution and Upgrading of Communication Network Infrastructure Accelerate in an All-Round Way The construction of global network infrastructure quickens, the deployment of 5G network achieves remarkable progress, fixed broadband enters the optical-fiber era, universal telecommunications service advances in an orderly way, the construction of Satellite Internet that consists of high orbit and low and medium orbit constellations and low-orbit-satellite IoT speeds up, and satellite navigation systems continue to be upgraded and updated. Various countries are solidifying their space infrastructure and international network-expansion capabilities, and building space-air-ground integrated network (SAGIN) that covers the globe.

2.2.1 5G Development Comes to a New Stage Major economies in the world have attached great importance to 5G development. 5G has entered the commercial stage in all respects in which the large-scale deployment and application of networks deepen and expand. In April 2021, 3GPP, a standardization organization, officially identified the name of 5G evolution as 5G-Advanced at the 46th Project Coordination Group (PCG) Meeting, which signaled that the development of global 5G technologies and standards came to a new stage. As the data of Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) suggested, by the end of May 2021, 443 telecom operators in 133 countries and regions had invested in 5G, of which 169 telecom operators in 70 countries and regions had launched 5G commercial services. China has built the largest 5G Standalone (SA) Network in the world, run 961,000 5G base stations as totaled, and promoted the construction of more than 400,000 shared base stations,1 with the number of 5G terminal connections reaching 365 million. AIS, a Thai operator, stated in the performance report for the first quarter of 2021 that iPhone 12 became the main driving force for increased 5G users. The number of 5G users totaled 719,000, which tripled over the first quarter of 2021 and rose by 200% over the fourth quarter of 2020. According to the data released by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), by May 2021, 32,367 patent clusters and 146,866 5G essential patents had been disclosed globally. The top 10 corporations were Huawei, LG Electronics, Qualcomm, ZTE, Samsung Electronics, Nokia, DTT, Ericsson, OPPO and vivo. In August 2021, Fortune published the latest ranking of the world’s top 500 globally. A total of 16 corporations in the global telecommunications industry were on the list, breaking even with 2019 and 2020. To be specific, AT&T (the United States), Verizon (the United States) and Deutsche Telekom AG ranked top three in the sub-list 1

Data Source: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic and China.

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of telecommunications industry, ranking the 26th, 44th and 53rd in the global list respectively. China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, three basic telecom corporations in China, were all on the list again, and their rankings were higher than that in 2020, ranking the 56th, 126th and 260th respectively on the global list.

2.2.2 Fixed Broadband Network Enters the Optical-Fiber Era Various countries in the world actively promote the deployment of high-speed broadband networks, and fixed broadband networks march towards the gigabit era of “Fiber to Everywhere”. On the basis of the report of Point Topic, a market research firm, by the end of 2020, the number of global fixed broadband connections had reached 1.18 billion, growing by 1.6% quarter on quarter. In particular, the highest growth rate of optical broadband occurred in developing markets, and the quarterly growth rates of the United Kingdom, France and Italy reached higher than 10%. In the total number of fixed broadband users, the top 10 countries were China, the United States, Japan, Germany, Russia, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, India and South Korea. Presently, the proportion of administrative villages connected with optical fiber and 4G in China has exceeded 98%, and the arrival rates of optical fiber and 4G coverage rates have been basically leveled up in urban and rural areas. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and A4AI co-released The Affordability of ICT Services 2020, which demonstrated that the user burden of China’s fixed broadband ranked the 4th in the world (from the lower level to the higher level), and that the communication tariff remained an internationally low level.

2.2.3 The Popularization and Deployment of IPv6 Accelerate As the IPv4 address resources are gradually depleted, the requirements for network security and network-service quality continue to rise. Various countries in the world fully acknowledge the urgency and importance of deploying IPv6, publish national development strategies, clarify development roadmaps and timetables, and actively advance the large-scale commercial deployment of IPv6. Developed countries and regions like the European Union, Japan, the United States, South Korea and Canada have issued relevant “IPv6 Action Plan” or “IPv6 Development Plan”. According to the statistics of APNIC Labs, by July 2021, the IPv6 deployment rate had exceeded 28% globally, exceeded 40% in some representative countries and regions in Europe, America, Asia and Oceania, exceeded 40% in 16 countries and regions, exceeded 30% in 25 countries and regions, and exceeded 20% in 39 countries and regions. In Asia, South Asia boasted the highest IPv6 deployment rate, with an overall level of 61.27%, whilst East Asia and Southeast Asia reached 22.64% and 21.23% respectively in this regard. In America, North America realized an IPv6 deployment rate of 47.51%, and Central America and South America achieved 35.26% and 25.88%

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respectively. In Europe, Western Europe owned a high-level IPv6 deployment rate (44.53%), which reached 27.60% in Northern Europe, and 11.38% and 9.49% in Eastern Europe and Southern Europe respectively.

2.2.4 The Deployment of Space-Air-Ground Integrated Network (SAGIN) Speeds Up Globally, the competition of space information infrastructure among various countries turns white-hot. As the global satellite-application industry mushrooms, and the strategic significance and role of satellite frequency and orbit resources emerge, for which international community vies in a fiercer way. In international rules, a country takes precedence in the use of satellite frequency and orbit resources if it applies for that first. Therefore, major commercial satellite corporations take the deployment of low-orbit satellite constellation as an important way to carry out SAGIN construction and scramble for orbit resources. In 2020, “Athena” Internet Satellite from PointView Tech LLC, a subsidiary of Facebook, was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States. In September 2020, “Athena” Project launched the first Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) via Vega Launch Vehicle operated by Arianespace, after which the satellite successfully entered the scheduled orbit. In March 2020, the FCC authorized SpaceX to build the ground antenna as required to connect users to its Starlink Satellite Internet Network. By May 2021, Starlink had launched 1737 satellites in total, accounting for half of the number of on-orbit satellites in the world, with more than 500,000 subscribers. In a month, SpaceX can manufacture 120 Starlink satellites and develop and produce thousands of user terminals, with an investment of more than 70 million U.S. dollars. Besides, SpaceX will provide Starlink services in the southern United States. In July 2020, the FCC announced the approval of Amazon’s Internet Satellite Program. Amazon’s Project Kuiper will launch 3236 satellites into low-altitude orbit in five stages. On condition that 578 of them enter the orbit, broadband services are available. In May 2021, OneWeb, a British satellite communications corporation, launched 36 satellites (the 7th batch) via Russia’s “Alliance-2.1b” Launch Vehicle, with a total of 218 on-orbit satellites. The development of satellite navigation systems forms a new paradigm. In October 2020, Russia launched the third-generation Uragan-K satellite, which served as a navigation constellation of GLONASS, Russian Global Navigation Satellite System, numbered GLONASS Uragan-K No. 15L. Uragan-K satellite tremendously strengthened the signal coverage of GLONASS and remarkably enhanced the signal stability. In November 2020, as reported, Japan planned to launch three more satellites for Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) and build a seven-satellite constellation by the end of March 2024 to establish Japanese satellite positioning system. In June 2021, the U.S. SpaceX “Falcon 9” Rocket launched the 5th GPS III satellite, only

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seven months after the launch of the fourth one. In comparison with other GPS satellites in operation, GPS III satellites prove safer, with accuracy increased by three times and the anti-interference ability increased by eight times. This prominently improved civil signal. China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) actualized global networking in 2020. Applied to more diverse industries and cases, BDS basic products have been exported to 120 countries and regions. With regard to sky communications, the ideas of unmanned aerial vehicle and balloon are used to provide Internet services. Space information resources are viewed as vital strategic resources in countries. Since SAGIN has a far-reaching impact on national economy and national defense security, major countries expedite the construction and deployment of SAGIN. European countries and the United States as well as large Internet corporations reinforce the R&D of space technologies like satellites, floating platforms and unmanned aerial vehicles, boost the deployment of high-throughput broadband satellites and mobile broadband satellites, and forge global seamless SAGIN. In July 2021, Mihe Town, Gongyi City, Henan Province, China, was plagued by large-scale heavy rainfall, which incurred the communication interruption. UAVs for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief undertook the urgent task to support the disaster-hit area and establish an “air base station” in the disaster-hit area, which achieved continuous mobile-signal coverage of around 50 square kilometers.

2.3 Competition in Computing Infrastructure Increasingly Intensifies As the application of new technologies like 5G, cloud computing and AI accelerates, data traffic comes to a new stage of explosive growth. Global data centers develop quickly in a large-scale, green and energy-saving way. Mainstream manufacturers promptly construct heterogeneous computing ecosystems. Spurred by business demand and technological innovation, the deep integration of cloud, network and edge computing signals an important trend in the future. The fast growth of massive data necessitates the construction and upgrading of computing infrastructure. In the infrastructure of cloud computing, data center, edge computing and highperformance computing, the rivalry between various countries becomes more intense. Global giants in Internet industry tighten up on the control of technological exports and strive to establish their core roles in the field of network infrastructure.

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2.3.1 Cloud Computing Plays a Crucial Role in Computing Infrastructure Global cloud computing market continues to develop fast. The core of cloudcomputing industrial chain lies in cloud-service manufacturers. The manufacturers in China and the world include Internet corporations like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, Alibaba and Tencent, which provide elastic computing, network, storage, application and other services. Simultaneously, Internet-data-center manufacturers provide them with basic computer rooms, equipment, water and electricity and other resources. In April 2021, Gartner, an international research institution, released the latest report, which indicated that cloud computing grew rapidly in China, and that Chinese technological corporations accounted for half of the world’s top six cloud-computing manufacturers. Among them, in cloud ranking, Alibaba ranked the 3rd in the world and the 1st in the Asia Pacific Region, with a market share of 9.5%, higher than Google’s 6.1%. In May 2021, IDC released Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker, which suggested that in 2020, global cloud computing market increased by 24.1% year on year, and the total revenue reached 312 billion U.S. dollars. The total revenue of top five public cloud service providers in the world (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Google and Oracle) accounted for 38% of global revenue, with a year-on-year increase of 32%.

2.3.2 Data Centers Become Important Computing Infrastructure Data centers play a key role in data storage and circulation. By the end of 2020, the number of super-large-scale data centers in the world had risen to 541, with the highest growth rate in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and the Asia Pacific Region. In the past year, 15 countries have built new super-large-scale data centers, of which the United States, South Korea and Switzerland possessed the largest number of new data centers. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the investment in the construction of data center bounds. In the first half of 2020, 26 super-largescale data centers were put into operation. Additionally, 176 data centers were being planned or constructed. The latest data of Synergy Research Group, a market research organization, discloses that the number of super-large-scale data centers operated by 20 major cloud and Internet service corporations in the world has increased to 597. Corporations with the widest coverage of data centers are Amazon, Microsoft, Google and IBM, all of which have 60 or more data-center nodes and own at least three data centers in North America, the Asia Pacific Region, EMEA and Latin America. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of global data volume reached approximately 50% in the past ten years and remained 26% in the past five years, with high growth rate of data flow in the corresponding period. Stimulated by the

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increase of data volume, the demand for global data centers maintained an annual growth rate of 15–20%, and the demand for data centers in China realized an annual growth rate of more than 30%. In regard to global data-center market, third-party data centers like Equinix and DLR become major suppliers. With respect to data-center market in China, telecom operators maintain a dominant position in the market, with a total market share of more than 70%. Third-party data centers emerge rapidly, and listed companies like Global Data Solutions (GDS), SINNET, BAOSIGHT and @hub swiftly expand their investment scale.

2.3.3 Edge Computing Becomes Indispensable Infrastructure Edge computing, an emerging technology, has attracted wider attention with the rapid development of 5G and industrial Internet. In the use cases of numerous industries, edge computing plays a vital role, e.g. road management and automatic driving in smart transportation, quality detection and equipment monitoring in smart manufacturing process, disease monitoring and auxiliary diagnosis in smart medical care and so on. Triggered by the demands for IoT and AI, edge computing will show an exponential growth in the future. Data Age 2025 released by IDC states briefly that global data volume will reach 175ZB in 2025. Gartner predicts that by 2025, more than 75% of the data will be processed on the edge, which poses tremendous development opportunities for edge computing industry. In April 2021, IDC released 2020 PRC Edge Computing Server Tracker, which demonstrated that the five-year CAGR in global edge computing server market reached 19.6%, much higher than the growth rate of core infrastructure, with great market development potential. Besides, the edge computing server of Inspur ranked the 1st in China, with a market share of 32%. In July 2021, Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA) issued the report Edge Computing: Global Market Trajectory and Analytics, revealing that global edge computing realized market value of 3.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, as estimated. By 2026, the market value will amount to 15.2 billion U.S. dollars, with a CAGR of 27.7%. In 2020, Intel initiated “AI Computing Box”, a “box” that integrated software and hardware like CPU, CoreGPU CPU and “ × 86” architecture computing power, and accelerated the development of intelligent edge. After one-year ecological construction, edge AI-based video analysis solutions have been applied in smart manufacturing, smart retail and other fields.

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2.3.4 The Market Scale of High-Performance Computing Continues to Enlarge In June 2021, the 57th edition of the TOP500 List was released. According to the list, Japanese supercomputer “Fugaku” topped the list for the third time. Grounded its system in Fujitsu, “Fugaku” adopts ARM-architecture-based 48-core A64FX processor. In down-sampling computing that is used in the field of AI, the peak performance of “Fugaku” exceeds 1 EFlop per second. “Fugaku” boasts the first supercomputer in the world whose computing power reaches the level of EFlop. Perlmutter, developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of the United States Department of Energy, ranked the 5th, firstly listed in top 10. Based on HPE Cray “Shasta” Platform, Perlmutter adopts the heterogeneous system that comprises NVIDIA A100 40 GB GPU acceleration and AMD Milan CPU node. Perlmutter successfully achieves the peak performance of 89.8 PFlop/s and sustains the performance of 64.6 PFlop/s. Yet, its power consumption only reaches 2528 kW compared with the top 4 supercomputers. In the 57th edition of the TOP500 List, the number of supercomputers in China decreased from 212 in 2020 to 187, and the number of supercomputers in the United States increased from 113 in 2020 to 122. In terms of comprehensive performance index, supercomputers in the United States take the lead, whose computing power rank the 1st so far. In June 2021, Tesla unveiled a new supercomputer, the “trailer edition” of the upcoming supercomputer Dojo. Dojo Project consists of supercomputers with a computing speed of EFlop-level per second.

2.4 Global Deployment of New-Technology Infrastructure Quickens In recent years, major developed countries have strengthened the deployment of cutting-edge fields like AI, blockchain, quantum information, smart manufacturing, biological information and future network, continually increased R&D investment, and designed industrial development in advance.

2.4.1 AI Becomes New Infrastructure that Guides Intelligent Revolution AI plays a strategic role in new-round scientific and technological competition, and AI infrastructure resources that center on “data, algorithm, computing power and platform” are in the spotlight. AI-related products and services are extensively used in life, from multilingual translation software, intelligent speaker to automated driving systems, urban security systems and city brain. Governments, enterprises and nonprofit institutions, which come to realize that “AI + ” functions as an important

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way to stimulate new demands, new business models and new economic growth points, voluntarily embrace AI technology and sustainably invest in related industries. Under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, various countries in the world have accelerated the application of AI and the construction of AI infrastructure, and judged the condition of the COVID-19 pandemic on the basis of data, which have produced positive results. Attaching great importance to AI, governments in various countries bolster and encourage AI-intelligent-infrastructure construction, basic scientific research, talent training, R&D funding, and industrial cooperation and exchanges. The United States strives to maintaining a leading role in global science and technology, and places a high premium on AI in its scientific and technological landscape. In July 2021, the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States, who played the biggest role in promoting non-defense AI R&D in the United States, announced again to fund 11 new national AI research institutes, with a total investment of 220 million U.S. dollars. Simultaneously, the institutional network extended to 40 states and Washington D.C. The European Union focuses on fields such as industry, manufacturing, healthcare and energy, lays stress on innovation and creativity, and takes advantage of AI to upgrade manufacturing and related industries in an intelligent way. In February 2020, the European Commission released White Paper on Artificial Intelligence: a European Approach to Excellence and Trust, which proposed to mobilize resources throughout the industrial chain via public–private-sector cooperation, establish proper incentive mechanism, vigorously promote the deployment of AI R&D in Europe, and attract a total investment of more than 20 billion euros in AI in the next decade as planned. Beset by the severe problems of sub-replacement fertility (Japanese: しょうしか) and aging population, Japan highlights the application of AI in robotics, medical care, automobile transportation and other fields. According to 2020 Global AI Innovation Index Report, 46 major representative countries can be categorized into four echelons. To be specific, the United States holds a safe lead and belongs to the first echelon, with a total score of 66.31. South Korea, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Israel, Japan, France and other countries (14) fall into the second echelon, scoring 30–60. Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy and other countries (24) belong to the third echelon, scoring 15–30. Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Argentina, Romania, Mexico and Indonesia belong to the fourth echelon, scoring lower than 15.

2.4.2 Blockchain Plays a Decisive Role in the Strategic Competition Among Great Powers On the basis of distributed and peer-to-peer network as well as transparent mechanism, blockchain technology is hard to tamper with. It owns natural advantages in delivering trust, realizing industrial digital transformation and building digitaleconomy infrastructure and data productivity. In the distributed-business use case

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Table 2.1 The expenditure and growth rate of global corporate blockchain solutions in 2017–20222 Years 2017

The expenditure on solutions /1 Billion U.S. Dollars 0.95

Year-on-year growth rate (%) –

2018

1.5

57.89

2019

2.7

80.00

2020

4.3

59.26

2021

8.4 (Predictive value)

95.35 (Predictive value)

2022

11.7 (Predictive value)

39.29 (Predictive value)

that crosses border, commerce and industry, blockchain technology is gradually used, with its market scale increasing accordingly. In October 2020, the White House of the United States listed distributed ledger technology in national strategic key and emerging technologies. The development of global blockchain industry embarks on the “fast lane”, and the competition in this regard will be strikingly visible. Globally, corporate expenditure on blockchain maintains rapid growth in scale. The number of corporate registration hits a new high, and the number of patent application remains a high level. In 2020, the innovation on blockchain technology continued, and industrial integration accelerated. Central banks in various countries enthusiastically advanced digital currency research programs, and c. 80% of global central banks effectuated them. Various countries have successively introduced policies to foster the development of blockchain technology, and improved or clarified supervision over encrypted assets, which have guaranteed the innovation and development of blockchain industry. Table 2.1 shows the expenditure and growth rate of global corporate blockchain solutions in 2017–2022. As relevant IDC reports suggest, the United States, Western European countries and China rank top three in the expenditure on global blockchain solutions in 2016– 2022. As the attention degree and adoption degree of relevant technologies jump, the blockchain market grows rapidly. In 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the investment scale of blockchain solutions. In 2021, as the expectation effect of economic recovery expanded, the growth rate of the expenditure on blockchain market rebounded strongly, and the market further verified the actual effect of blockchain solutions.

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Data Source: 2020–2021 Annual Report of Global Blockchain Industry: Panorama and Trends, released by Huobi Research Institute.

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2.4.3 The Deployment of Global Quantum-Communication Backbone Network Accelerates Major developed countries have implemented or stepped up the implementation of long-distance quantum-communication trunk-line projects. 24 EU member states co-launch the quantum-communication infrastructure plan. The United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries have successively issued development plans for quantum fields like quantum computing and quantum communication. Japan and South Korea started late in this field. However, with solid technological accumulation, Japan and South Korea display strong development momentum in quantum computing. Many countries in the world comprehensively carry out policy support and project layout in relation to quantum-communication research and application. Some countries or regions have announced new major quantum-information science projects on the grounds of the existent R&D investment. In 2020, the United States released A Strategic Vision for America’s Quantum Networks and A Strategic Blueprint for America’s Quantum Internet, which proposed that “In the next five years, the United States will demonstrate basic science and key technologies to realize quantum networks, including quantum interconnection, quantum repeaters, quantum memorizer, high-throughput subchannels, and intercontinental space-based entanglement distribution”. The European Union published Strategic Research Agenda, proposing that “the three-year vision is to use QKD protocol and the network with trusted relay nodes to achieve global security-key distribution, and the six-to-ten-year vision is to use quantum repeaters to achieve quantum communication over 800 km on-optical fiber”. Hungary, Portugal and Poland join the European quantum communications infrastructure (EuroQCI) and work with other seven EU member states to jointly develop and deploy EuroQCI in the next decade. According to EuroQCI, the European Union will integrate quantum technologies and systems into the existent communication infrastructure, and apply quantum infrastructure to transmit and store information in a super secure way to realize the full connection of EU communication assets. Additionally, EuroQCI helps Europe to ensure that its key infrastructure and encryption systems are safe from cyber threats, protect intelligent energy networks, air traffic control, banks and health care facilities from hacker attacks, and enable data centers to safely store and exchange information, so as to secure governmental data privacy in a long term.

2.5 The Construction of Application-Oriented Infrastructure Makes Haste New-generation information technology represented by AI, 5G and cloud computing has fully penetrated economy and society, which have established empowered use

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cases and application-oriented infrastructure that provide services for digital transformation, intelligent upgrading and system innovation, and facilitate the digital process.

2.5.1 The Construction of IoT Infrastructure Quickens Presently, the industrial chain of IoT has entered the connection-volume stage. The incremental markets are mainly cellular and non-cellular Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN). The prosperity index of IoT industry continues to rise. As predicted, the number of IoT connections will substantially increase in next five years. By the end of 2020, the number of commercial cellular-IoT-network connections had soared to 114 from 66 in the end of 2018, deployed by 59 operators in 52 countries and regions. Particularly, there were 78 NB-IoT commercial networks and 36 eMTC (LTE-M) commercial networks. IoT plays an integral part in the 5G era. Predictably, the total number of global IoT connections will rise from 12 billion in 2019 to 24.6 billion in 2025, with an average CAGR of 13%. Accordingly, global IoT revenue will quadruple. IDC’s report bespoke that in 2020, albeit the COVID-19 pandemic intensified the demands for contactless IoT use cases to a certain extent, it impaired the implementation of IoT projects in an offline way. Meanwhile, the pilot projects of some IoT use cases did not form a mature business closed loop, with unsatisfactory development effects. In 2020, global IoT expenditure reached 690.47 billion U.S. dollars, and Chinese market took up 23.6%.

2.5.2 The Application of Industrial Internet Extends and Deepens The construction of the global industrial-Internet platform attains positive progress. The platform presents an active trend of innovation and displays a powerful driving force for the digital transformation of manufacturing industry. By means of platform convergence, the ecological pattern featuring comprehensive integration and interactive collaboration takes shape. Mainstream telecom operators represented by Vodafone, AT&T and China Telecom accelerate the layout of cellular IoT. The number of IoT perception-terminal connections grows fast, and the core role of the platform shifts from original Connection Management Platform (CMP) to Device Management Platform (DMP) and Application Enabling Platform (AEP). The construction of core infrastructure like network facility and Identification Analysis System speeds up, and the market scale of industrial Internet platforms continues to expand. Generally speaking, North America and Europe still lead the list in the market share or scale (see Fig. 2.1). Yet, as the growth rate in various regions start to polarize,

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Fig. 2.1 The market share of global industrial internet products

the regional market of global industrial Internet takes on a tripartite pattern. North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific Region are dominant regions for the development of industrial Internet. American corporations possess significant advantages. General Electric (GE), Microsoft, Rockwell, Amazon and other corporations energetically deploy industrial Internet, and start-ups vigorously promote cutting-edge innovation, so as to solidify the leading industrial role of the United States. Against the backdrop of manufacturing’s return to the United States, the growth rate of industrial Internet market increases slightly. Under the guidance of manufacturers such as GE, Cisco and Intel, the United States further deepens the application market of industrial Internet and leads the development of global industrial Internet as ever. The United States stresses innovation-driven development, foregrounds the advantages of Internet, information communication and software, and uses information technology to re-shape manufacturing industry in a top-down way. It has successively promulgated “Manufacturing Recovery Act”, “Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Program” and other supporting policies, and formulated the Strategy for American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing that focused on the development and transformation of new manufacturing technologies. In Future Plan for Industrial Development, the United States lists advanced manufacturing, AI, quantum information and 5G as the priorities of governmental support. National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States has included the R&D of Cyber Physical System (CPS) in the NSF funding for 14 consecutive years. In corporate practice, large corporations like General Electric and Cisco lead industrial development, and Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) of the United States continually attracts a variety of industrial giants and top institutions to join.

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European industrial giants like Siemens, Bosch, ABB and SAP actualize speedy advancement in industrial-Internet development with their basic advantages in manufacturing. According to the data released by CCID (China Center for Information Industry Development), the market scale of global industrial-Internet product would exceed 1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022 and maintain an average CAGR of 6% in 2020–2025, as predicted. Under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and Russian economy, the growth rate of European industrial-Internet market decreases by degrees and hits the European business of traditional manufacturers like Siemens and SAP, whose overall market scale follows after the United States and ranks higher than the Asia–Pacific Region. IIC of the United States and German institutions engaged in “Industry 4.0” jointly release a white paper on the docking analysis of Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA) and Reference Architectural Model Industrie 4.0 (RAMI 4.0). The white paper emphasizes that IIRA and RAMI 4.0 resemble and complement each other in terms of ideas, methods and models. Germany stages “Industry 4.0 Strategy”, underscores the optimization of basic production processes like intelligent factory, intelligent production and intelligent logistics, and transforms the manufacturing industry in a top-down way. It has successively published Digital Strategy 2025 and German Industrial Strategy 2030, which propose to accelerate the interconnection of machines and Internet (“Industry 4.0) as a revolutionary and innovative technology for digital development. In corporate practice, leading corporations like Siemens and SAP continue to improve the layout of digital industry. In Japan and South Korea, the scale of industrial Internet market remains relatively stable. India and Southeast Asian countries become new forces for the growth of industrial Internet market. In China, industrial Internet market embodies great potential and maintains rapid growth. Japan coins the idea of “Connected Industry”, in which “Industrial Value Chain Initiative” aims to establish local connected-industry supporting systems, highlight the interconnection among enterprises, and raise the production efficiency of the whole industry. In order to promote “Connected Industry Strategy”, on the one hand, Japan sorts out visual demonstration-use cases (e.g. manufacturing white papers, examples, online maps and intelligent-factory demonstration projects); on the other hand, Japan sets up external supporting institutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. For instance, Japan organizes “smart manufacturing supporting groups” to assist small and medium-sized enterprises by dispatching experts, popularizing easy-to-use tools, or providing technological, personnel and tool support. MarketsandMarkets, the second largest market research and consulting firm in the world, predicts that from 2020 to 2023, the CAGR of industrial Internet market in the Asia–Pacific Region will be the highest. The infrastructure and industrial development of emerging economies (e.g. China, India and Southeast Asia countries) continue to facilitate the growth of industrial Internet market scale, with the Asia–Pacific Region as an important center for manufacturing development in the world.

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2.5.3 The Deployment of Global Internet of Vehicles (IoV) Accelerates Over the past year, key technologies such as intelligent networked vehicle sensor technology and vehicular computing technology have boosted the improvement of vehicle intelligence, and 5G vehicular communication technology has accelerated the process of vehicle networking. Globally, countries and regions that take the lead in the development of IoV industry continue to support the development of automatic-driving technology at the policy level, actively revise relevant laws to adapt to industrial development, and quickly formulate standards in the fields of IoV and automatic driving. In the United States, enterprises play a major role in the development of IoV industry, and governments create better development conditions at legal and policy levels, in which market forces promote industrial and technological development. In March 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released ITS Strategic Plan 2020–2025, which attached more attention to the R&D of automatic driving and network security. On the one hand, the U.S. DOT provides government-oriented communication channels for the development direction, resource integration and regulatory model of automatic driving by means of policy; on the other hand, the U.S. DOT takes “exemption” as a main tool to provide policy-related protection for the exploration of automatic-driving road operation. Nuro, an American company, has obtained “exemption” for up to 5,000 vehicles in a two-year testing stage. The European Union continues to release strategic plans for networked automatic driving and improve the roadmap of automatic-driving development. EU’s goal is to realize open-data interaction between networked automatic driving and big-data trusted platforms by 2022, and to improve next-generation V2X (Vehicle to X)-to-L4 level automatic-driving capability by 2025. German automatic-driving vehicles can sense the vehicles about to leave within 400 m and respond timely. Japanese government directly participates in the promotion of key industries, supports the application of new intelligent technologies for automobiles, and focuses on intelligent transportation, automatic driving and other fields. Japan’s Amendment to the Road Transportation Vehicle Act came into effect in April 2020, in order to commercialize and popularize automatic-driving technology. China proposes to develop advanced vehicular sensors and chips in IoV technology, integrate advanced information communication technology, and build intelligent perception ability to complex environment as well as intelligent decision-making and automatic control functions, so as to meet the requirements for the development of next-generation automobile and intelligent transportation that are safe, efficient and energy-saving. In November 2020, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States officially voted to allocate 5.9 GHz band (5.850–5.925 GHz) to Wi-Fi and C-V2X, and announced to abandon Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) and turn to C-V2X, which meant that C-V2X became the only international standard for global IoV.

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By July 2020, in the field of global IoV, the number of patent applications had totaled 115,013, among which 98,821 in the same patent family were merged. With regard to global patent applicants, Japanese and American enterprises remain the leading position. China is the largest patent producer, and some Chinese corporations (e.g. Huawei, ZTE and Baidu) perform prominently. In the technological flow of global patent applications, China, the United States and Japan are major technological originators and target markets in the field of intelligent networked vehicles. Foreign countries deeply deploy patent market in China, whereas China shows a sharp contrast in overseas market. Japanese market is relatively closed and mainly dominated by domestic technologies.

Chapter 3

World Information Technology Development

3.1 Outline The world sees a stage when economic development largely relies on information industry. Since 2020, new-generation information technology has been impelling production modes to be more intelligentized, industrial forms to be more digital, and industrial organizations to be more platform-based. This has enormously improved production efficiency and resource-allocation efficiency in the entire society. In 2020, the level of high-performance computing progressed steadily, and new heterogeneous-architecture-based super-computing juggled both performance and environmental protection. The level of chip process further improved, and global market faced a shortage of chips. The changes of new operating-system products were in the pipeline, and industrial software kept developing towards intelligence and cloud-end. With mature technologies and multiple route forms, AI formed large industrial scale. The application of cloud native technology continuously accelerated the construction of new infrastructure, and quantum information technology and application made a significant breakthrough. New applications that derive from new-generation information technology will further meet the common expectations of people and the needs of socioeconomic development, and will better serve the development process of human civilization.

3.2 Basic Technologies In 2020, global layout of supercomputing power in Japan and the United States remained basically stable. In the TOP500 List, the single-machine computing power of the United States and Japan ranked top three. The monopoly pattern of computing chip proved relatively obvious. International leading corporations dominated chip R&D. Global advanced chip process entered the 5 nm-level mass-production stage. © Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, World Internet Development Report 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7_3

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Chip-storage corporations like Samsung and SK Hynix accounted for c. 90% of the total market share. IoT operating systems mushroomed, and many smart business use cases of “5G + IoT” came true. Global industrial software presented the development trend of platforms and cloud services, and Dassault, Siemens and other corporations took the lead. The number of global open-source projects grew exponentially, and active open-source projects centered on emerging technologies like AI and cloud computing.

3.2.1 High-Performance Computing Moves Towards an Era in Which Performance and Energy-Consumption Are Taken into Account Since 2020, high-performance computing in the world has developed steadily, and its comprehensive performance has remained basically stable. The innovation in cuttingedge fields has focused on heterogeneous systems to effectively balance performance and energy-consumption. 1. Overall Computing Performance of Supercomputer Improve Steadily In June 2021, the 57th TOP500 List was released (see Table 3.1 for top 10 on the list). Japanese supercomputer “Fugaku” ranked the 1st in a row. American supercomputers ranked the 2nd and the 3rd. Chinese supercomputers “Sunway TaihuLight” ranked the 4th and “Tianhe-2A” ranked the 7th. “Fugaku” was jointly developed by RIKEN (Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) and the manufacturer Fujitsu. It consists of around 400 clusters, with a computing performance of 442 PFlop/s. In Mixed Precision HPC-AI Benchmark Test, its performance reached a record of 2.0 EFlop/s. Noticeably, in the 57th TOP500 List, overall-performance-growth curve of all listed supercomputers tends to be flat. 2. Environmental Protection Becomes an Important Indicator for Supercomputer Energy conservation and environmental protection is an indicator to measure the performance of supercomputer. In June 2020, the Green500 List was published. The environmental-protection level of supercomputers continuously improved, and green computing that supported multi-architecture computing power and multi-business use case effectively met the needs of the rapid development of new-generation information industry. In the Green500 List, MN-3, from Japan’s Preferred Networks, took the first place. The system relies on MN-Core chips, whose power efficiency reaches 29.70 GFlop/W, for accelerator optimized for matrix operation and Xeon Platinum 8260 M processor. Perlmutter supercomputer, which was newly put into use in 2020, was the only new supercomputer that ranked top 10 in the Green500 List (the 6th), with robust performance and high efficiency of 25.55 GFlop/W (Table 3.2).

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Table 3.1 Top 10 supercomputers in the 57th TOP500 list (June 2021) Ranking

Supercomputers

Cores

Floating point arithmetic (TFlop/s)

Peak performance (TFlop/s)

Power/kW

1

Supercomputer Fugaku, A64FX 48C 2.2 GHz, Tofu interconnect D, Fujitsu RIKEN Center for Computational Science Japan

7,630,848

442,010.00

537, 212.00

29,899

2

Summit-IBM Power System AC922, IBM POWER9 22C 3.07 GHz, NVIDIA Volta GV100, Dual-rail Mellanox EDR Infiniband, IBM DOE/SC/Oak Ridge National Laboratory United States

2,414,592

1,48,600.00

200,794.90

10,096

3

Sierra-IBM Power System 1,572,480 AC922, IBM POWER9 22C 3.1 GHz, NVIDIA Volta GV100, Dual-rail Mellanox EDR Infiniband, IBM / NVIDIA / Mellanox DOE/NNSA/LLNL United States

94,640.00

125, 712.00

7438

4

Sunway TaihuLight-Sunway MPP, Sunway SW26010 260C 1.45 GHz, Sunway, NRCPC National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi China

93,014.60

125,435.90

15,371

5

Perlmutter-HPE Cray 706,304 EX235n, AMD EPYC 7763 64C 2.45 GHz, NVIDIA A100 SXM4 40 GB, Slingshot-10, HPE DOE/SC/LBNL/NERSC United States

64,590.00

89,794.50

2528

6

Selene-NVIDIA DGX A100, AMD EPYC 7742 64C 2.25 GHz, NVIDIA A100, Mellanox HDR Infiniband, NVIDIA NVIDIA Corporation United States

63,460.00

79,215.00

2646

10,649,600

555,520

(continued)

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Table 3.1 (continued) Ranking

Supercomputers

Cores

7

Tianhe-2A-TH-IVB-FEP Cluster, Intel Xeon E5-2692v2 12C 2.2 GHz, TH Express-2, Matrix-2000, NUDT National Super Computer Center in Guangzhou China

8

Floating point arithmetic (TFlop/s)

Peak performance (TFlop/s)

Power/kW

4,981,760

61,444.50

100,678.70

18,482

JUWELS Booster Module-Bull Sequana XH2000, AMD EPYC 7402 24C 2.8 GHz, NVIDIA A100, Mellanox HDR InfiniBand/ParTec ParaStation ClusterSuite, Atos Forschungszentrum Juelich (FZJ) Germany

449,280

44, 120.00

70,980.00

1764

9

HPC5-PowerEdge C4140, Xeon Gold 6252 24C 2.1 GHz, NVIDIA Tesla V100, Mellanox HDR Infiniband, Dell EMC Eni S.p.A. Italy

669,760

35,450.00

51,720.80

2252

10

Frontera-Dell C6420, Xeon Platinum 8280 28C 2.7 GHz, Mellanox InfiniBand HDR, Dell EMC Texas Advanced Computing Center/Univ. of Texas United States

448,448

23,516.40

38,745.90

–

3.2.2 Chip Manufacturing Process is Upgraded Iteratively and the Production Capacity Needs to Be Improved Presently, a new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation grow steadily, and the development benefit of chip industry further intensifies. Technological innovation and product reform accelerate, and new-round international industrial division and competitive pattern take shape quickly. 1. Mainstream Chip Products Continue to Be Upgraded Iteratively. 1) Computing Chips In general, the monopoly pattern of computing chips becomes evident, and international leading enterprises occupy a leading position in chip R&D.

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Table 3.2 Top 10 in Green500 list Ranking

Ranking of performance

Supercomputers

1

336

2

Cores

Performance (TFlop/s)

Power/kW

Power efficiency /(GFlop/W)

MN-3-MN-Core Server, 1664 Xeon Platinum 8260 M 24C 2.4 GHz, Preferred Networks MN-Core, MN-Core DirectConnect, Preferred Networks Preferred Networks Japan

1 822.40

61

29.7

22

HiPerGator AI-NVIDIA 138, DGX A100, AMD EPYC 880 7742 64C 2.25 GHz, NVIDIA A100, Infiniband HDR, NVIDIA University of Florida United States

17,200

383

29.521

3

101

Wilkes-3-PowerEdge XE8545, AMD EPYC 7763 64C 2.45 GHz, NVIDIA A100 80 GB, Infiniband HDR200 dual rail, Dell EMC University of Cambridge United Kingdom

44, 800 4,124.0

147

28.144

4

37

MeluXina-Accelerator Module-BullSequana XH2000, AMD EPYC 7452 32C 2.35 GHz, NVIDIA A100 40 GB, Mellanox HDR InfiniBand/ParTec ParaStation ClusterSuite, Atos LuxProvide Luxembourg

99, 200 10, 520.0

390

26.957

5

215

NVIDIA DGX 19,840 SuperPOD- NVIDIA DGX A100, AMD EPYC 7742 64C 2.25 GHz, NVIDIA A100, Mellanox HDR Infiniband, NVIDIA NVIDIA Corporation United States

90

26.195

2356.0

(continued)

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Table 3.2 (continued) Ranking

Ranking of performance

Supercomputers

Cores

Performance (TFlop/s)

Power/kW

Power efficiency /(GFlop/W)

6

5

Perlmutter-HPE Cray EX235n, AMD EPYC 7763 64C 2.45 GHz, NVIDIA A100 SXM4 40 GB, Slingshot-10, HPE DOE/SC/LBNL/NERSC United States

706, 304

64, 590.0

2528

25.55

7

8

JUWELS Booster 449, Module-Bull Sequana 280 XH2000, AMD EPYC 7402 24C 2.8 GHz, NVIDIA A100, Mellanox HDR InfiniBand/ParTec ParaStation ClusterSuite, Atos Forschungszentrum Juelich (FZJ) Germany

44, 120.0

1764

25.008

8

44

JURECA Data Centric Module-BullSequana XH2000, AMD EPYC 7742 64C 2.25 GHz, NVIDIA A100 40 GB, Mellanox HDR InfiniBand/ParTec ParaStation ClusterSuite, Atos Forschungszentrum Juelich (FZJ) Germany

9330.0

384

24.291

9

190

Spartan2-Bull Sequana 23,040 XH2000, AMD EPYC 7402 24C 2.8 GHz, NVIDIA A100, Mellanox HDR Infiniband, Atos Atos France

2566.0

106

24.262

10

94

Wisteria/BDEC-01 42,120 (Aquarius) - PRIMERGY GX2570 M6, Xeon Platinum 8360Y 36C 2.4 GHz, NVIDIA A100 SXM4 40 GB, Infiniband HDR, Fujitsu Information Technology Center, The University of Tokyo Japan

4, 425.00

184

24.058

105, 840

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(1) In terms of CPU chips, in 2020, global CPU chip market achieved 63.658 billion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 10.6%. “ × 86” architecture-based CPU played an absolutely monopolistic role in desktop computer and supercomputer and server market, and the CPU chips of Intel and AMD accounted for more than 95% of the market share. In September 2020, Intel launched the 11G Tiger Lake processor for laptops, which adopted Xe GPU and 10 nm SuperFin process, and supported Thunderbolt 4, USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6, with a great leap in performance and battery life compared with the previous Ice Lake chip. In March 2021, AMD launched the 3G EPYC 7003 Series Processor, code named “Milan”. The processor adopted tsmc’s 7Nm process. Equipped with Zen 3 architecture that was released in October 2020, EPYC possessed a great advantage in server market. In November 2020, Apple staged its first selfdeveloped chip M1 based on ARM architecture. M1 processor adopted tsmc’s 5 nm advanced process and signaled ARM architecture’s advance towards the desktop field. In March 2021, NVIDIA introduced three processors based on Arm IP, among which Grace CPU with 5 nm advanced process was the first CPU released after it announced the acquisition of Arm. (2) In terms of GPU chips, in 2020, global GPU chip market realized a scale of 10.309 billion U.S. dollars, up by 39.4% year on year. Global GPU chip market was basically monopolized by NVIDIA (84.7%) and AMD (14.7%). Currently, mainstream GPU products have applied 7 nm process and more advanced technologies. NVIDIA monopolizes the accelerated deep-learning algorithmic-chip market, applies great computing power of GPU into such fields as AI, intelligent driving and high-performance platforms, and builds rigorous software and hardware ecosystems with the aid of the software-development framework CUDA platform. In April 2021, NVIDIA launched A10/A30 Tensor Core GPU based on Ampere architecture, which targeted data center market and foregrounded virtualized platforms. In mobile GPU chip market, there are mainly three major manufacturers, i.e. Qualcomm, ARM and Imagination. Qualcomm integrates GPU into Snapdragon chip, and ARM and Imagination gain profits by authorizing GPU IP to chip-design enterprises. (3) In terms of FPGA chips, in 2020, global FPGA/PLD chip market scale reached 5.575 billion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year decrease of 6.0%. In 2020, global FPGA chip market was monopolized by Xilinx (52.4%), Intel (32.2%), Microchip (6.9%) and Lattice (5.6%). Technologically, Xilinx highlights selfadaptive computing, and uses FGPA chips to improve the performance of computing, network and storage devices. In April 2021, Xilinx launched SelfAdaptive Module SOM Product of Kria Series, which was equipped with FPGA chip to accelerate visual AI algorithm. Intel uses FPGA chips to remedy the shortcomings of CPU chips. In February 2020, Intel made innovation on several architectures of FPGA-Agilex Series. Compared with the older generation, the performance of Stratix 10 improves by more than 45%. (4) In terms of DSP chips, in 2020, global DSP chip market scale totaled 1.196 billion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year decrease of 6.6%. Global DSP chip

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market is dominated by Texas Instruments (36.2%), NXP (27.3%) and ADI (23.6%). 2) Memory Chips DRAM and NAND Flash are principal components of memory chip industry, taking up 96% of the total memorizer-industry market. In 2020, five major memory chip corporations, i.e. Samsung (37.1%), SK Hynix (20.1%), Micron (17.7%), Kioxia (8.3%) and Western Digital Corporation (6.1%), accounted for c. 90% of the total market share. In 2020, DRAM market scale realized 65.89 billion U.S. dollars, up by 5.9% year on year. NAND Flash market scale reached 53.411 billion U.S. dollars, up by 25.2% year on year. In terms of DRAM, three original DRAM manufacturers, i.e. Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron come to the stage of Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) and contest against in the 4G 10 nm (1anm) process technology. Three original DRAM manufacturers stay at the stage of 12–14 nm process, but their progresses in mass production differ. Samsung introduced EUV equipment in 2020, and accelerated and expanded the productions of 15 nm DRAM and 14 nm DRAM in 2021. SK Hynix completed the construction of a new M16 plant in February 2021. It would introduce EUV equipment for the first time, and start producing the 4G 10 nm (1anm) DRAM products in the second half of 2021 as planned. In June 2021, Micron announced that the mass production of 1anm-process-based LPDDR4x DRAM particles would be officially started (EUV equipment not imported). After entering the 3D stack, NAND Flash is upgraded quickly and its capacity is enlarged substantially. With the process reaching 14 nm level, technological difficulties multiply, and 3D NAND Flash technology represents a new development direction. Now, international mainstream enterprises generally enter more-than-100-layer stack, and the competition among them intensifies. In November 2020, Micron started the mass production of 176-layer-stack NAND Flash. SK Hynix took over the NAND Flash business of Intel in October 2020, and successfully developed 176-layer-stack 4D NAND Flash in December 2020. 176-layer-stack 4D NAND Flash improved the data-storage performance of the older-generation 128-layer-stack product by 35%, and significantly strengthened the competitiveness of products. In February 2021, Kioxia and Western Digital Corporation developed the 6G 162-layer-stack 3D NAND Flash technology. 3) Communication Chips The development of 5G plays a driving role in the development of integrated circuit and semiconductor industry, and breeds new development opportunities for communication chips. Major semiconductor corporations have deployed in the 5G field, and Qualcomm, Huawei, MediaTek and Samsung have launched 5G baseband and SoC chips. In February 2021, Qualcomm unveiled Snapdragon X65 and X62, 4 nmprocess 5G-baseband chips. Snapdragon X65 is a modem and RF system that meets 3GPP Release 16 standards. Snapdragon X65 realizes a transmission rate 100 times of that of the early 4G LTE, and supports all major 5G bands, including millimeter

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wave and Sub-6 GHz band. In January 2020, MediaTek announced the 7 nm-processbased Dimensity 800 Series 5G chip, which integrated 5G modem and targeted midrange computer market. In January 2021, MediaTek introduced Dimensity 1100 and Dimensity 1200, two flagship chips that adopted tsmc’s 6 nm process. 2. The Innovation on Manufacturing Process and Supporting Industrial Chain Is Continuously Made 1) Manufacturing Process In 2020, as the capacity of Foundry continued to dwindle, a variety of chips were in short supply for a long time, with higher prices and longer delivery dates. Considering the trend of technological development, the integration of manufacturing and packaging presages a significant direction to break the bottleneck of advanced manufacturing process and forge advantages in differentiated technologies. In the market orientation, 7 nm process and more advanced processes will become the biggest growth point for global semiconductor OEM market. In the changes of industrial patterns, the organizational model of integrated circuit industry becomes increasingly open, which kindles fiercer market competition. In national scientific and technological competition, the adjustment of semiconductor strategies in various countries further highlights the importance of integrated circuits. In 2020, global leading Foundry manufacturers successively reached the stage of 7 nm process, and tsmc successfully started the mass production of 5 nm process (N5). In April 2020, tsmc disclosed the detailed information of 3 nm process (N3) for the first time. N3 process meant a formal iteration after N5 process. Predictably, the transistor density of N3 process increased by 1.7 times (the unit-level density of c. 290 MTr/mm2 ). Compared with N5 process, the performance of N3 process improved by up to 50% and the power consumption reduced by up to 30%. In terms of tsmc’s N3 process, the risk-production plan was set in 2021, and the mass-production plan was set in the second half of 2022. In June 2020, Gate-All-Around (GAA) of Samsung’s 3 nm process was officially taped out, and the mass-production plan would wait until 2022. Samsung’s data show that compared with its 7 nm process, the performance of 3 nm process improves by 35%, the power consumption of 3 nm process decreases by 50%, and the area of 3 nm process reduces by 45%. Intel officially announced the mass production of 10 nm-process products in September 2017, yet the yield of 7 nm-process products failed to produce desirable effects. Therefore, the mass production of 7 nm-process products would be postponed until 2023, as predicted. In March 2021, Intel announced its IDM 2.0 Vision, which stated that Intel would invest 20 billion U.S. dollars in building two wafer factories in the United States for improved production capacity and expanded OEM business. 2) Package Tests Presently, traditional package tests and advanced package tests in global semiconductor industry run parallel. Large-scale production can be carried out by using major packaging technologies like Flip-Chip, QFN and BGA. In the future, packaging technology will evolve towards two major sectors. The first one is Wafer-Level Packaging (WLP) for chips, including Fan-In WLP and Fan-Out WLP, which can accommodate

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more pins under a smaller packaging area. The second is System in Package (SiP) for chips, which integrates multiple functional chips to compress the volume of the modules and improve the overall functionality and flexibility of the chip system. In recent years, Chiplet model, which has advantages of modularization and customization, comes to rise. This speeds up the development of WLP technology and cuts down the costs of design, manufacturing and packaging. Presently, Marvell, AMD, Intel, tsmc and other semiconductor corporations have successively released Chiplet products. Chiplet will create opportunities for the semiconductor industry, lower the threshold of large-scale chip design, enhance IP value and reduce design costs. ASE Group, Ankao Technology and Siliconware Precision Industries and other companies master advanced packaging technologies like WLP, Fan-Out, Flip Chip and 2.5D/3D and achieve mass production. 3) Equipment and Materials The manufacturing process of chips evolves in line with Moore’s Law, and the technological innovation and development of equipment-dedicated integrated-circuit parallelly progresses. The R&D of integrated circuit centers on the reduction of transistor size and the expansion of density. Simultaneously, the development of key processes like photomasking, etching, ion implantation and deposition plays a crucial role. Global semiconductor-equipment technology calls for the coordinated and cooperative development of multi-parties like wafer manufacturing enterprises, equipment enterprises and R&D institutions. Now, with the joint efforts of wafer manufacturing enterprises, equipment enterprises and R&D institutions, 5 nm process has achieved mass production and further advanced towards 3 nm, 1 nm and even subnano processes. In the field of photomasking technology, ASML, a corporation from the Netherlands, has monopolized high-end photoetching machine market. ASML is the only corporation that can realize the mass production of EUV photoetching machines. In 2020, the shipment of EUV photoetching machines was 31. In the field of etching technology, in order to cooperate with wafer manufacturing enterprises to increase the equipment size vertically and reduce the key size horizontally to reduce the costs, to improve the aspect ratio of etching has been the optimization objective of the development of etching equipment. In 2021, Lam Research announced Vantex, the latest dielectric-substance etching technology, which would provide higher performance and greater scalability for current and next-generation NAND and DRAM storage devices. Spurred by the growth of the semiconductor manufacturing and packaging market scale and the development of advanced processes, global semiconductor manufacturing materials and packaging materials market sprouted in 2020. Specifically, the market scale of semiconductor manufacturing material reached 34.89 billion U.S. dollars, and the market scale of semiconductor packaging materials reached 20.42 billion U.S. dollars. In 2020, among major semiconductor manufacturing materials, silicon wafer was the first bulk material, with a market scale of 11.17 billion U.S. dollars. The market scale of electronic gas achieved 4.54 billion U.S. dollars. The photoresist market grew the fastest, with a growth rate of 19.5% and a scale of 2.12 billion U.S. dollars. In 2020, among major semiconductor packaging materials, packaging substrate was the first bulk material, with a market scale of 7.69 billion U.S.

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dollars. The market of bonding wire grew the fastest, with a growth rate of 6.3% and a scale of 2.91 billion U.S. dollars.

3.2.3 Traditional Industrial Pattern of Software Technology Steadily Changes Presently, global software industry has shaped an international hierarchical industrial division system, and the distribution of the upstream, midstream and downstream chains of global software development industrial chain has become visible. Particularly, several giants dominate operating system and industrial software markets. However, a series of new technologies, new products and new service models gradually alter traditional industrial patterns. 1. Operating Systems Display a Cross-Platform and Cross-Filed Development Trend In recent years, the functional form of operating systems becomes more complex, and “micro kernel + modular design” presents a prominent development direction. The market shares of desktop-end operating system, mobile-end operating system and IoT basically remain stable. Over the past year, major corporations launched new products as well as cross-platform and cross-filed new technologies, which fired new changes in operating systems. 1) The Market Pattern of Desktop-End Operating Systems Changes Stably Microsoft’s desktop-end operating system accounts for 80.5% of the market share as ever and maintains a dominant position in the market. In June 2021, Windows 11, Microsoft’s new-generation operating system, was officially launched, which supported some Android apps on mobile terminals and gradually blurred the boundary of desktop and mobile terminals. Google’s Chrome operating system was well received among users as it could better support online education, occupying 10.08% of the market share and surpassing Apple (ranking the 2nd in the world). Apple’s Mac operating system accounted for 7.5% of the market share and ranked the 3rd. The market share of Linux operating systems ranked the 4th. Its latest edition further improves the support of graphic computing and maintains a solid position in corporate user market. 2) Two Mobile-End Operating System Giants Maintain a Monopolistic Position Google’s Android system ranks the 1st, with a market share of 74%. iOS, a mobile operating system developed by Apple, ranks the 2nd, with a market share of 25%. Samsung’s Tizen operating system and India’s Kai operating system follow after Android and iOS, yet share low market shares. In 2021, a number of new operating systems were officially released, which introduced new force into the pattern of

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mobile-end operating systems. For instance, Google published the Fuchsia operating system independent of Android. Huawei launched HarmonyOS, a microkernel-based, full-scene-distributed operating system, which supported smartphones, tablets, TVs, IoT and other platforms. Now Huawei has released HarmonyOS 2.0. 3) IoT Operating Systems Thrive in a Diverse Way 2020 saw the surge of IoT. The emergence of “5G + IoT” ushered in the realization of numerous business use cases. Google’s Android Things integrates Android’s development interface and Google’s basic service, and creates a complete ecosystem that involves cloud platforms, app stores and development tools. Fuchsia, another Google’s product, constantly promotes technological innovation on the integration of cloud, edge and terminal. Microsoft’s Azure Sphere and Azure RTOS product lines spotlight cloud connection and terminal real-time deployment respectively, and build a complete interconnected product system. IT giants attempt to construct the entire IoT industrial ecosystem via continuous user experience from the combination of software and hardware. 2. Industrial Software Shows a Development Trend of Platform, Cloud Service and Low-Code As an important form of intelligent manufacturing, industrial software plays an irreplaceable role in promoting the development of industrial intelligentialization. In general, several industrial giants manipulate global industrial software market, e.g. Dassault Systèmes (France), Siemens and SAP (Germany), and Autodesk and Oracle (the United States). Over the past year, the industrial software field had the following characteristics. 1) Industrial Giants Continuously Construct Integrated Platforms As the complexity and integration of industrial products continuously improve, industrial software develops from the single application of software to the comprehensive application of multiple programs. In the development of industrial software, it is a major trend to integrate information (knowledge, technology and software related to multidisciplinary fields) into a comprehensive platform and realize overall cooperation in the upstream and downstream industrial chains. On the one hand, traditional giants in industrial software industry have launched comprehensive collaborationplatform software that integrates their own product lines. On the other hand, they have continuously acquired other companies to supplement their technological disadvantages and expand their product lines, establishing a complete system that runs through product design, industry, manufacturing and service. For example, in January 2020, Dassault Systèmes acquired Distene S.A.S., a grid engine company. In November 2020, Autodesk purchased Spacemaker, a design software developer. In May 2021, Siemens bought Supplyframe, an electronics design and procurement platform. 2) Cloud Service Reshapes the Form of Industrial Software Products Traditional industrial software presents a shift-to-cloud trend. The deployment model has shifted from enterprise per se to private cloud, public cloud and hybrid cloud.

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The software architecture has shifted from tight coupling to loose coupling, and has turned to component-based, platform-based and service-oriented development. The operating platform has shifted from personal computers to supporting a variety of mobile operating systems. Presently, cloud collaboration platforms represented by Autodesk’s Fusion 360, Dassault’s 3D Experience, Siemens’ Realize LIVE and PTC’s (Parametric Technology Corporation, the United States) LiveWorx have become mainstream products. In contrast to relatively large mature products of these industrial giants, cloud platforms are light-weight, easy to deploy, with modular and scalable functions. The sales model turns from one-time license to annual subscription. Besides, these enterprises open cloud platforms to students and small development teams at low prices or even free, so as to continuously attract individual developers into their ecosystems. 3) Low-Code Development Arouses More Attention Low-code development means to automatically generate running codes through the assembly and modeling drive of visual software functional components. Apps can be quickly generated without coding or with a few codes. Low-code development can lower the development threshold, accelerate iteration and improve development efficiency to achieve low costs, high efficiency and flexible iteration. According to Forrester’s report, in 2020, the market scale of low-code platforms would grow to 15.5 billion U.S. dollars, with 75% apps developed in low-code platforms. Low-code becomes a main software-delivery platform and plays a key role in supporting the construction of development ecosystems. For example, Siemens is using Mendix’s low-code development capability to quickly create apps, collect asset data, and exchange data on various bills of materials (BOMs), CAD graphics, etc., in order to help users develop apps quickly on industrial Internet platforms.

3.2.4 The Ecology of New Open-Source Technologies Constantly Improves Open source denotes not only a way of software licensing, but also a model for collaborative innovation. Since 2020, global open source has indicated a trend of rapid development, and a series of software and hardware products in emerging technologies have taken open-source ecology as a major development path. Statistically, in code bases of Internet and software infrastructure industries and IoT industries, 83.4% and 82.1% are open-source codes respectively.1 The technological innovation and industrial model under the open-source model will mature. 1. Hot Topics on Open-Source Software Continue to Rise 1) Open-Source Software Develops Continuously and Rapidly

1

Data Source: 2020 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis Report published by Synopsys.

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In recent years, the open-source production model has become a new-generation development model of software. Open source features openness and collaboration, promotes the rapid updating and iteration of software products and facilitates the sustainable development of the software field. In general, the number of global opensource projects continues to grow exponentially. According to the annual statistical report for 2020 released by GitHub, a well-known open-source hosting platform, by September 2020, the number of open-source-software developers on GitHub had exceeded 56 million, with more than 60 million new open-source projects created and more than 1.9 billion contributions added. As SourceClear’s survey report predicts, the number of global open-source projects will exceed 300 million in 2026. 2) Open-Source Projects Center on the Field of Emerging Technologies The construction of open-source ecology highlights open-source projects. Effective open-source projects mainly involve Internet platforms, AI, cloud computing, and big data. Take Bossies (Best of Open Source Software awards) voted by an American media business InfoWorld as an example. In 2020, 25 Bossies winners in open-source software included tools for building better Web apps, more accurate machine-learning models, clearer data-visualization tools, faster and more scalable databases and analytical tools. Among them, top five open-source projects were Hasura GraphQL Engine, a graphic database software; Prisma, database tool set under the ORM (Object Relational Mapping) framework; Jekyll, a static blog-website generating software; Gatsby, a front-end framework for website construction; and Drupal, a CMF (Content Management Framework). 3) Technological Giants Continually Invest in Open Source, with Mature Business Models In technological giants like Microsoft, Google, Red Hat and Intel, a substantial number of personnel engage in open-source development (see Table 3.3). Core open-source projects that rely on their own operating systems, AI framework and other basic software change the overall business pattern. Presently, with open-source projects divided into community version and commercial version, enterprises have gradually established three types of business model: open-source service-subscription charging model, e.g. the subscription model initiated by Red Hat; corporate-distribution charging model adopted by software like Eclipse (a programming-environment software) and MySQL (a database); cloud-service charging model mainly represented by Amazon. 2. Open-Source Hardware Will Break Traditional Chip Patterns as Expected RISC-V sets off an upsurge in open-source hardware and open-chip design. With the support of many large and medium-sized enterprises, scientific research institutions and start-ups in the world, the ecology and community that focus on RISC-V develop rapidly. Boosted by RISC-V Open Source Foundation, RISC-V instruction

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Table 3.3 Top 10 list of global corporation open source participation in 20202 Ranking

Corporations

Active developers/people

The number of key participating communities

1

Google

5709

11,361

2

Microsoft

5051

10,095

3

Red Hat

3127

5003

4

IBM

2382

5039

5

Intel

2233

5175

6

Amazon

1231

3145

7

Facebook

1203

3411

8

GitHub

987

2356

9

SAP

901

1790

10

Huawei

699

1683

set develops fast. In the field of control and the cases of IoT, more products and app cases emerge. More open-source communities and enterprises carry out the adaptative and optimal programs in relation to RISC-V. Cutting-edge researches have deepened and cultivated a batch of technological talents on RISC-V architecture for open-source communities. RISC-V Open Source Foundation transferred its registered headquarters from State of Delaware (the United States) to Switzerland in November 2019, and completed the legal-entity transition in March 2020. It was renamed RISC-V International Association, with a neutral stance. In recent years, many technological corporations (e.g. Western Digital Corporation, Qualcomm, NXP, Google, Microsemi, NVIDIA, Samsung, IBM and Amazon), as well as research institutions and universities (e.g. UC Berkeley, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and Indian Institute of Technology) have successively launched RISC-V programs. In April 2021, SiFive, the largest RISC-V architecture manufacturer, successfully taped out the first RISCV-architecture SoC chip based on tsmc’s 5 nm process, which can be used in such cases as AI, data center and high-performance computing.

3.3 Cutting-Edge Technologies In 2020, in the field of AI, new unsupervised and self-supervised algorithms constantly improved the level of automation and produced achievements in transnational cooperation. In the field of cloud computing, cloud native development environment was further upgraded, and new technologies and models were ceaselessly

2

Data Source: https://octoverse.github.com/.

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launched, with rapid development in cloud computing. In the field of quantum information technology, lots of new breakthroughs were made in quantum chemical simulation, quantum machine learning and quantum combinatorial optimization.

3.3.1 AI Continues to Develop and Algorithm and Computing Power Continue to Improve AI functions as core driving force for a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and has a far-reaching impact on global socioeconomic development. New algorithm, software and hardware continue to innovate iteratively, commercial use cases multiply, and the popularity and industrial scale of AI keep growing. Under the joint efforts of global AI industry, production and research circles, achievements are incessantly made on AI R&D, and related technologies are continuously upgraded to new levels. 1. AI Algorithms 1) Computer Vision In computer-vision algorithm, technologies in relation to reducing manual labeling, adjusting model and improving the automation of visual tasks develop quickly. For example, there are unsupervised and self-supervised technology that constantly evolves, intelligent data-preprocessing technology that enhances the availability of non-standard structured data, and the technology that uses semantic-level understanding for visual underlying processing. At the beginning of 2020, Google and Facebook initiated two algorithms respectively, i.e. SimCL and MoCo, which could learn image-data representation in massive unlabeled data. SimCL and MoCo are within the framework of contrastive learning, and core training signal is the “distinguishability” of pictures, which demonstrate that unsupervised learning models can approach or even achieve the effect of supervised models. In May 2020, Facebook launched the visual version of Transformer, Detection Transformer (DETR), which successfully integrated Transformer to actualize performance balance and simplify the architecture. In November 2020, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of Tübingen proposed the method of Representing Scenes as Compositional Generative Neural Feature Fields (GIRAFFE), which automatically separated one or more targets from images via three-dimensional representation and semantic segmentation of image content. The joint research team of the California Institute of Technology and the Northwestern University of the United States suggested a method based on multi-task self-supervised learning. Targeting the problems of expert’s labeling on massive data, the structured knowledge from experts on various fields is designed and encoded with the process of task programming to reduce the workload of data labeling in the early stage. In March

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2021, the University of Central Florida of the United States advanced temporalaction orienting method based on Multi-Label Action Dependency (MLAD), which improved the accuracy of human actions in oriented videos by understanding the logical relationship between action sequences. 2) Natural Language Processing In natural language algorithms, a series of new methods, including upgrading evaluation systems and interpretable models, are successively proposed to improve natural language processing capacity with pre-training models. Microsoft and the University of Washington unmask that the performance of the model is commonly overestimated in a traditional verifying way. Learning from the principle of “Black Box Testing”, Microsoft and the University of Washington suggest a method called “CheckList” to re-measure natural language processing, which can hopefully address the problem of high performance indicator yet unsatisfactory actual effects in the past. The research teams of the University of Illinois, Columbia University and the U.S. Army Research Institute launch GAIA, the first public open-source multimedia knowledge-extraction system, which takes a great deal of unstructured and heterogeneous multimedia data streams from different languages as input, creates a coherent and structured knowledge base, indexes entities, relationships and events, follows rich and fine-grained ontologies, searches complex graphics, and retrieves multimedia evidences like texts, images and videos. GAIA was rated as the best extraction system in 2019 International Knowledge Base Construction Competition (NIST TAC SM-KBP). With the aid of large-scale parameter quantities and data sets, the superposition performance of simple architecture probably surpasses that of complex algorithms. In January 2021, Google launched Switch Transformer, a pre-training model that contained 1.6 trillion parameters, which broke the record of 175 billion parameters created by GPT-3 training model. Switch Transformer used the technology of Sparsely Activated. Given the same computing resources, Switch Transformer proved faster than the training model with smaller parameters previously launched by Google. 3) Algorithms in Other Fields (1) The fair-unbiased-sequencing learning model hedges against the Matthew Effect in search sequencing. In July 2020, the research team of Cornell University of the United States published a paper on Fair Co, a fair and unbiased sequencing learning model, and obtained the Best Paper Award at “The 43rd International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval”. The paper studied and analyzed the common Matthew Effect in the current sequencing model, e.g. orientation deviation, sequencing fairness and object exposure. On the basis of counterfactual-learning technology, the paper suggested an correlation-degree unbiased estimation method with fairness constraints to improve the sequencing performance. (2) AlphaFold2, an AI system of DeepMind, solves the problem of protein-structure prediction. In November 2020, AlphaFold2 from DeepMind won the championship in “The 14th International Protein Structure Prediction Competition”

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(CASP), with the protein-structure-prediction task basically close to the practical level for the first time. The accuracy of AlphaFold2 stood comparison with the 3D structure of protein analyzed by experimental technologies such as CryoEM, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance or X-ray crystallography. In July 2021, DeepMind published the latest research findings in Nature, and its AI system AlphaFold2 could predict 98.5% of human protein structure. (3) Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) comes to rise. MLOps is a new idea in the field of data science and DevOps in machine learning. MLOps provides services for data scientists and ML engineers, prompts their collaborative work and raises work efficiency. It owns a complete set of behavioral strategies to solve various problems in the operation cycle of machine learning and AI. In Top 20 Projects on Github that grow fastest, there are five MLOps tools. 2. AI Chips Presently, the algorithm and application of AI in various fields stay in the stage of rapid development and iteration. As the underlying foundation that supports AI industry, AI chips have great development prospects. Now, AI chips as a priority developed and applied in AI industry can be mainly categorized into three types. To be specific, there are acceleration-based chips for the training and reasoning of machine learning and deep learning (basically deep neural network algorithm), brain-like bionic chips whose design is inspired by biological brain, and AI chips for general use that can efficiently calculate all kinds of AI algorithms. Currently, NVIDIA’s GPU chip enjoys a dominant position in the market. RTX 3080TI, NVIDIA’s new-generation general graphics chip, owns 10,240 CUDA cores, with its performance nip and tuck over Tesla V100, older-generation AIdedicated graphics chip. Tesla A100, the latest AI-dedicated graphics chip, adopts 7 nm process and 3D-stack technology, whose performance proves 20 times higher than Tesla V100. DGX A100 Supercomputer, an AI computing platform released synchronously, has a computing power of 5PFlop/s /, supported by eight Tesla A100 GPUs. In recent years, AMD has sustainably invested in the research of AI chips. In March 2021, AMD released the 3G EPYC processor “Milan”, which adopted the latest Zen 3 architecture and 7 nm process. With a maximum of 64 cores and 128 threads, “Milan” achieves an intergenerational IPC upgrading by 19%. In June 2021, AMD announced VersalTM AI Edge Series, which aimed to assist from-edge-to-end AI innovation. The architectural innovation results in higher unit-power-consumption performance and lower delay than GPU chips, strengthening the functions of edge devices. In May 2021, Google released TPU v4, the latest-generation AI chip, which improved the performance by 2.7 times averagely, over the older-generation TPU v3. Basically connected to Pod, IPU v4 plays its role. There are 4096 TPU v4 single chips in each TPU v4 Pod. Owing to its unique interconnecting technology, TPU v4 can transform hundreds of independent processors into a system, and its interconnection bandwidth reaches 10 times that of other network technologies in scale. Each TPU

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v4 Pod can satisfy the computing power of 1 EFlop/s and the floating point arithmetic of 1018 /s, twice that of “Fugaku”, the fastest supercomputer in the world. 3. The Capacity of Deep-Learning-Framework Software Continues to Improve As basic software widely used in AI industry, deep-learning-framework software can immensely reduce the threshold for the deployment of AI R&D and improve the R&D efficiency. After several-year market competition, in global deep-learningframework software, an industrial pattern takes shape, in which Google’s TensorFlow and Facebook’s Pytorch become the mainstream trend. TensorFlow enjoys great popularity in industrial circle, and applies Data Flow Graphs in numerical calculation. TensorFlow 2.x integrates a series of new technologies and algorithms in the version updating to continuously improve and enhance the performance of TensorFlow Core, and retain the consistency of evaluation metrics while ensuring smooth performance evaluation. New performance-evaluation tool Performance Profiler optimizes overall compatibility of TensorFlow ecosystem, including TensorFlow Extended key bases. Pytorch is well received in academia, owing to its convenient functions like dynamic graphic mechanism and automatic derivation. In the 2021 updated version, Pytorch adds compatible low-level mathematical-computing tools, performanceanalysis tools, Distributed Data Parallel (DDP) and RPC (Remote Procedure Call)based distributed training functions, which improves the ability to deploy the deeplearning model of the mobile terminal again. Pytorch supports the use of the mobile terminal via the build-in visual tool TorchVision base, combines the updated mobile-terminal interpreter, and enormously diminishes resource consumption of mobile-terminal deployment.

3.3.2 Cloud Native Technology Gradually Matures Global cloud computing market maintains steady growth. In 2020, global IaaS market scale achieved 64.286 billion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 40.7%. Top manufacturers lead the list in the market share, and Amazon, Microsoft and Alibaba Cloud rank top three in the world. Cloud native technology continually improves cloud efficiency and rapidly develops. Development languages like Rust and Web assembly technology are gradually popularized and applied. New technologies in cloud space like Gitpod and GitOps Engine will have a deep impact on the development of cloud native technology in the next decade. 1. Cloud Development Environment Is Further Upgraded

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The continuous upgrading of cloud Workspaces, development languages Rust and Web assembly technology helps small and medium-sized teams forge softwaredelivery capabilities that can match large corporations. In 2020, Google released the official version of Gitpod Project as an online Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which truly realized the cloud Workspaces. Starting project development from any page of GitHub, a code hosting platform, Gitpod can reduce the developmentpreparation time to minutes. Development language Rust is also welcomed among developers. Rust not only runs at the same speed of C/C++ , but also owns the components necessary for writing secure applications. In 2020, Microsoft officially launched Rust library for Windows, which enabled users to write Windows-platform applications and drivers with Rust. Web assembly technology is a technology that supports various language codes to run in the Web at a speed close to the execution speed of native programs. In 2020, Web assembly technology further expanded the supporting language and introduced Wamser virtual machine, which realized “plug-in” development. 2. The Hybrid Cloud Unified Control Plane Technology Gradually Matures Customized unified control plane technology supports cross-cloud deployment. OAM (Open Application Model)-based standardized template spurs the changes in the expansion and management of distributed applications. Cloud native projects like Crossplane and KubeVela extend “platform engine” and create unified control interface for developers, so as to realize cross-cloud workload management. 3. Monomer Architecture and Microservices Are Considered in a Balanced Way In recent years, microservice-built cloud native apps come to rise, which break up a larger app into smaller, interconnected components, allowing independent teams to deal with different parts of the app without interfering with each other. Yet, microservices are confronted with a series of problems or “a Gordian knot”, such as cross-component debugging, project decoupling and segmentation and the inherent complexity of distribution. In 2020, more compromises were adopted in cloud-native practice, so that microservices could balance with other factors in corporate software design. For example, Istio service grid used the method of monomer-migrating, with more services integrated into a single daemon. 4. New Cloud Native Operations Model Is Continuously Explored For a long time, cloud computing hits a bottleneck in the continuous deployment and development of complex apps. In recent years, some researchers began to explore “GitOps” model and programmable Linux-kernel technology. In “GitOps” model, development and operation are integrated. Git-version-control software pulls and automatically manages requirements from infrastructure, builds and pushes workflows, and accelerates app deployment. In June 2020, GitOps Engine was officially released as a project to practice the above idea. Through version control, GitOps Engine could realize automatic app deployment and life cycle management. Other tools and software, such as Prometheus, a cloud-resource monitoring tool, also support GitOps model and provide interfaces to realize automation. Besides,

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programmable Linux-kernel technology, i.e. Extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) technology, starts to be widely used. eBPF is a bytecode virtual machine built into the kernel, with advanced functions such as packet filtering, call-stack tracking, timeconsuming statistics and hotspot analysis. eBPF functions as a microkernel, which provides a faster and safer way to use Linux kernel. In this way, eBPF enables apps to obtain system-level monitoring and debugging functions, speeds up the decisionmaking process of network routing, and allows the kernel to inline to complete the work assigned to the module so far.

3.3.3 Quantum Information Technology Is Deeply Explored Quantum information technology advances human abilities to understand and transform the world to an unprecedented level. In recent years, as technological achievements in quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum measurement are continuously made, the scramble for new technological breakthroughs and scientific and technological leading role are increasingly fierce. 1. Major Representative Countries and Regions Actively Deploy in the Field of Quantum Information Technology 1) The United States The United States has completed the strategic deployment in the field of quantum information technology. In regard to theoretical research, the United States focuses on promoting the disciplinary construction of quantum information science. With respect to application technology, the United States emphasizes the development of quantum-computing hardware equipment driven by the development of highperformance computing systems, and achieves several staged results. In 2020, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) prepared to spend 625 million U.S. dollars to establish five quantum information science (QIS) centers. Private sectors and academic institutions would provide an additional 340 million U.S. dollars for the construction of these centers. In 2021, U.S. President Biden stated that the United States would invest 180 billion U.S. dollars in “future R&D and industry”, which involved advanced computing (including quantum computer) and the design and manufacture of semiconductors. 2) The European Union Regarding development goal, the European Union targets four fields, i.e. quantum communication, quantum simulator, quantum sensor and quantum computer, in the development of quantum information technology. The European Union ensures the development of quantum information technology in Europe by building favorable

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ecosystems for technological and commercial innovation, promoting the collaborative cooperation between academia and industry, realizing the efficient transfer of quantum information technology from laboratory to industry, and cultivating newgeneration experts and professionals on quantum information technology. In March 2020, the EU’s “Quantum Information Technology Flagship” released Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), which clarified the development goals of “Quantum Information Technology Flagship”. In January 2021, France announced the launch of “National Strategy for Quantum Information Technology”, planning to invest 1.8 billion euros in the quantum field within five years. In March 2021, the European Commission published 2030 Digital Compass: the European Way for the Digital Decade, proposing that by 2025, Europe would have the first computer with quantum acceleration function. 3) India India is a latecomer in the field of quantum technology. Taking the lead in the international IT industry, India will be an important force in the field of quantum technology in the future. Presently, India takes the development path of collaborating with other countries and relying on external forces. It has successively established cooperative relations with IBM, Microsoft, Honeywell Quantum Solutions, the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) of the National University of Singapore and Lomonosov Moscow State University, as well as Russoft, a software development outsourcing company. India fosters the development of quantum information by sharing research findings in quantum science. In the 2020 budget, Indian government announced National Mission for Quantum Technology and Application (NM-QTA), which would last for five years, with a total budget expenditure of Rs. 80 billion. 2. The Application and Cloud Deployment of Quantum Computing Advance Side by Side “Classical + hybrid” quantum algorithm under NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) condition is one of the current research hotspots. In particular, the algorithms represented by Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) and Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) are expected to solve specific computing problems like chemical simulation and combinatorial optimization under NISQ computing architecture. In August 2020, Google achieved the process simulation of isomerization reaction, and Huawei released HiQFermion quantumchemistry-simulation application software, which used VQE algorithm to predict chemical-molecular energy. In July 2021, Google’s quantum processor “Sycamore” realized an exponential growth in logic-error suppression. By running a onedimensional-chain repeat code composed of 21 qubits and a two-dimensional surface code composed of seven qubits, “Sycamore” achieved an exponential growth of up to 100 times in the suppression of logic errors. This confirms that quantum errorcorrection can successfully control the error rate within a certain range, and that quantum error-correction paves the way for the development of scalable fault-tolerant quantum computers in the future.

3.3 Cutting-Edge Technologies

91

Quantum machine learning in general quantum algorithms is also popular in the current research. Google introduces Tensor Flow Quantum and quantum convolution neural network solutions, which provide online training and model-evaluation functions and accelerate the exploration of quantum machine learning hopefully. Quantum heuristic classical algorithm stands for a new research direction as observed recently. It can accelerate the processing of specific problems like recommendation system by applying the design idea, data structure and computing logic of quantum computing into classical computers, and probably becomes a new direction in practical exploration. The architecture of quantum cloud computing technology is taking shape, and the hierarchical design basically becomes clear. Particularly, the hardware base constitutes the core part of quantum computing cloud platforms, which lumps traditional computing facilities with quantum processor, quantum storage and quantum measurement and control technology, and forms great computing power. The back-end form of quantum cloud computing features diverse technologies. There are mainly three models, i.e. real quantum computing, quantum computing simulator and classicalhybrid quantum computing. Technological corporations like IBM, Google, Microsoft and Amazon all deploy quantum cloud computing to seize the initiative for future development. Start-ups vie with each other. To cultivate user habits and ecological status, the competition among them intensifies and propels the development of quantum cloud computing industry into a “fast lane”. In August 2020, Amazon officially launched Amazon Braket quantum computing service. In June 2021, IBM integrated all its open quantum computing systems into Strangeworks quantum computing ecosystem. Xanadu, a start-up that introduced the first optical quantum computer in the industry in 2019, started its quantum cloud platform in September 2020, and received 100 million U.S. dollars in financing in May 2021. 3. Multiple Technological Paths in the Field of Quantum Communication Progress Simultaneously In the technological path of Discrete Variable Quantum Key Distribution (DV-QKD), the innovative TF-QKD (Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution) protocol based on single-photon interferometry at intermediate nodes can eliminate the security vulnerabilities of measurement nodes and further improve the transmission capacity of QKD system, which becomes an important direction of QKD-technology upgrading and equipment development in the future. In 2020, on the basis of wavelength selective switch and optical switch matrix, the University of Bristol of the United Kingdom completed the experimental scheme of QKD system co-modulated by wavelength level and port level and multi-dimensional networking modulated by optical network, which provided a new idea for the network-level integrated deployment of QKD. In the technological path of Continuous Variable Quantum Key Distribution (CV-QKD), CV-QKD system possesses potential advantages in cost and integration degree. CV-QKD-system hardware adopts traditional coherent optical communication devices, which can easily realize optical integration and effectively improve the integration degree and cost performance of CV-QKD system. In 2020, the joint research team of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Beijing

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Normal University realized ultra-low loss optical fiber transmission with a distance of 202.81 km and a bit rate of 6.214 bit/s in a laboratory environment, hitting a new record for long-distance transmission of CV-QKD system. CV-QKD local oscillator scheme becomes the trend of practical research, yet raises higher requirements for laser linewidth and frequency locking stability. In June 2020, the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) of Spain proposed a plug-and-play CV-QKD system scheme based on single laser, which achieved a bit rate of 0.88 Mbit/s over a transmission distance of 13 km. National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, Japan) completed the CV-QKD system experiment of 194-wave channel wavelength division multiplexing by using the partial division multiplexing of Gaussian modulation signal and pilot signal at the transmitter and conducting digital-domain DSP phase compensation for polarization locally at the receiver. The overall bit rate of CV-QKD system at a distance of 25 km can reach 172.6 Mbit/s. 4. The Theoretical Framework, R&D and Application of Quantum Measurement Gradually Mature Presently, the theoretical framework of distributed quantum sensing based on the entanglement of Discrete Variable (DV) and Continuous Variable (CV) has been proposed. CVQSN uses entangled compressed optical signal as the measurement unit, which is generally suitable for amplitude, phase detection or quantum imaging. In 2020, the University of Arizona of the United States used CV-QSN for compressed vacuum phase measurement, with a measurement variance lower than SQL by 3.2 dB. Hopefully, CV-QSN will be explored and applied in the fields of ultra-sensitive positioning, navigation and timing in the future. Muquans (France) develops a wide range of product lines in the fields of quantum inertial sensing, high-performance time and frequency application and advanced laser solutions. Its major products include absolute quantum gravimeter, cold atom frequency benchmark and so on. Muquans started to develop quantum computing processors in 2020. M Squared Lasers (the United Kingdom) develops inertial sensors and quantum timing devices for gravity, acceleration and rotation. Its major products include quantum accelerometers, quantum gravimeters and optical lattice clocks. M Squared Lasers also partakes in the R&D of quantum computers for neutral atom and ion. 5. The Characteristic Application of Quantum Is Actively Explored Typical uses cases and fields in the exploration and application of quantum computing revolve around quantum chemical simulation, quantum machine learning and quantum combinatorial optimization. In September 2020, scientists from the Free University of Berlin (Germany) proposed a new method of deep learning wave function simulation, which could obtain the nearly-accurate solution of the electron Schrödinger Equation. The research embodies not only the application of deep learning in solving a specific scientific problem, but also the broad prospects of deep learning widely used in scientific research in various fields like biology, chemistry, materials and medicine. Quantum simulation can improve the discovery rate of drugs and save the R&D time, and better molecular design can improve the approval rate of drugs. In August 2020, Google’s quantum computer simulated the largest-scale

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chemical reaction so far. The quantum processor simulated the isomerization reaction of a diazene molecule composed of two nitrogen atoms and two hydrogen atoms, which accorded with the simulation results on the classical computer and verified the correctness of the experiment.

3.4 New Technologies and New Applications Since 2020, the application of new-generation information technology has played a vital role in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past year, multiple fields like new drug R&D, automatic driving and digital twin have made further progress in the application of new technologies and continuously improved the quality of people’s life.

3.4.1 The R&D of New Drugs Speeds Up with the Help of AI The R&D of new drugs calls for a long cycle. The use of AI can immensely shorten the time of screening candidate drug molecules and save R&D costs. Now, globally there are two major AI-aided drug R&D corporate alliances, i.e. MELLODDY and MLDPS. MELLODDY is mainly led by Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline and other pharmaceutical corporations, in conjunction with NVIDIA and other technological corporations. MELLODDY drills AI models based on the data of many pharmaceutical corporations, via cloud-based NVIDIA GPU and distributed AI technology of federated learning. MLDPS mainly consists of 13 pharmaceutical corporations led by MIT. In March 2020, it jointly launched Computer Aided Synthesis Planning (CASP) based on machine learning. Presently, the work of AI-aided new-drug development stays in the verification stage. It will take some time for AI technology to drive and connect the whole drug R&D process to realize real universal AI. In September 2020, Panomics, an AI new drug R&D platform of Insilico Medicine (the United States), was staged. Panomics can be used to accelerate the drug-target discovery and drug R&D process, shortening the time of new drug R&D to 18 months. Compared with existent AI drug R&D platforms, biological researchers and clinicians can analyze and interpret omics data via Panomics without having a knowledge of computational biology or bioinformatics, which enormously lowers the threshold of the use of AI in the pharmaceutical process. Merck KGaA, a German pharmaceutical corporation, reached a cooperation with Insilico Medicine in November 2020. Chemistry42™, a product with new molecular design, would be used to generate chemistry AI platforms that would be integrated into High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure of Merck KGaA to provide customized services. In March 2020, Owkin, an American corporation, launched COVID-19 Conversational AI (COAI), which enabled users to apply AI in the medical field via the deep-learning model of MesoNet, including drug-development optimization, survival prediction, target

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discovery, clinical trial and drug-market analysis. In May 2020, Owkin obtained a fund of 25 million U.S. dollars.

3.4.2 L3 Scene of Automated Driving Is Progressively Piloted Today, automated driving technology means an important orientation for the innovation and development of automobile industry. Major representative countries energetically promote the development of such a cutting-edge technology, and gradually improve relevant policy support and strategic plans. In January 2020, the United States issued Automated Vehicles Guidance 4.0 (AV 4.0), which aimed to coordinate and simplify regulation, accelerate corporate innovation, and ensure the leading position of the United States in this regard. In May 2020, Japan published Report and Policy on Efforts to Realize Automatic Driving Version 4.0 and raised the requirements for commercial propulsion technology and technological testing and verification. In October 2020, the United Kingdom released UK Connected and Automated Mobility Roadmap to 2030, which clearly proposed the automated mobility roadmap in the next decade (to 2030). The French Strategy for the Development of Automated Road Mobility 2020–2022 was announced in February 2021, which introduced EVRA, a heavily-subsidized national experimentation program. In May 2021, Germany passed The Framework Act on Automated Vehicles, which proposed to allow L4 automated vehicles to go on the road by 2022. In technological classification, automated driving can be divided into perceptionlayer technology that comprises radar, inertial sensors and cameras, planning-layer technology that comprises high-precision maps, computing chips and intelligent algorithm technology (including SLAM and machine learning), and execution-layer technology that comprises Electronic Control Units (ECUs) and actuators. Currently, a variety of technological paths have taken shape. According to The Ranking of Automatic Driving Competitiveness released by Navigant Research, Waymo and Cruise (General Motors) keep ahead in the world in this field. In March 2021, Waymo introduced its fifth-generation Waymo Driving System. Equipped with radar imaging system, it can find traffic signs 500 m away, and has completed 20 million miles (1 mile approximates 1.6 km) of automatic driving mileage and more than 10 billion miles of simulation mileage. In January 2020, GM’s Cruise debuted “Origin”, a vehicle with integrated automatic driving technology. “Origin” does not feature any manual controls such as pedals or a steering wheel. It mainly relies on a variety of hybrid sensors and AI in decision-processing, equipped with a redundant system that can perform safe parking for backup. Additionally, Tesla opened and tested a Full Self-Drive (FSD) system in October 2020. The sensor-layer contained eight cameras. The “prior experience” of deep-learning network replaced some functions of map and radar, with the advantage of being easily popularized. Over the past year, in global automatic driving technology, L3 auxiliary driving pilot was gradually carried out; yet, automatic driving technology needs to continuously iterate and develop to fully realize unmanned automatic driving. In 2020,

3.4 New Technologies and New Applications

95

Table 3.4 International organizations for standardization that promote digital twin standardization3 Time

Organizations

Released documents and related work

January 2020

Digital Twin Consortium (The United States)

Since its inception, DTC has been focusing on creating cross-industry digital twin reference architecture and definition

February 2020

Industrial Internet Consortium (The United States)

Publishing White Paper on the Application of Digital Twin in Commerce and Industry, co-publishing White Paper on the Digital Twin and Asset Administration Shell Concepts and Application in the Industrial Internet and Industrie 4.0 with German Platform Industrie 4.0

March 2020

International Telecommunication Union ITU-TSG17

Approving Standards for Security Mechanism for Digital Twin System in Smart City in the field of smart city

September 2020

Industrial Digital Twin Association (Germany)

Since its inception, IDTA has been developing digital twin open-source solutions

September 2020

IEEE

Approving IEEE2806.1 Standard for Connectivity Requirements of Digital Representations for Physical Objects in Factory Environments

November 2020

ISO/IEC JTC1

AWI5618 Digital Twin: Concept System and Terminology System and AWI5719 Digital Twin: Application Cases

Daimler AG released L3 Mercedes-Benz S-Class W223, and Tesla launched L3 mass-production Model Y. In 2021, Honda launched L3 model “Legend”, BMW launched L3 mass-production model “iNEXT”, and Audi launched L3 model A8.

3.4.3 The Implementation of Digital Twin Is Accelerated Conceptually and Technologically Driven by data and model and supported by new-generation information technology, digital twin can achieve the maximum closed-loop optimization of the whole factor, whole industrial chain and whole value chain of enterprises through real-time connection, mapping, analysis and feedback of the asset behavior of the physical world. In 2020, several international organizations for standardization set about exploring the

96

3 World Information Technology Development

standardization of digital twin, and publicized some POC (Proof of Concept) projects (see Table 3.4). Digital twin involves technologies as follows: perception and control technology represented by intelligent sensing, IoT and automatic control, computing and integration technology represented by cloud computing and edge computing, modelinganalysis technology represented by modeling simulation, big data and machine learning, human–computer interaction technology, and featured drive technology represented by system engineering, MBSE, digital thread and administration shell. In recent years, major corporations in the world continue to facilitate the construction of digital-twin-related platforms and tool software. For instance, there are Siemens’ Simcenter Digital Twin Simulation Platform, ANSYS’ Twin Builder Digital Twin Analysis Platform, Microsoft’s Azure Digital Twins Platform, GE’s Predix Cloud Service Platform for Industrial Data Analysis and Development, and Bentley’s iTwin Services Tool. As related technologies mature, digital twin perhaps solves the problem of connecting and interacting between the virtual world and the real world, with considerable value in application.

3

Data Source: White Paper on the Application of Digital Twin 2020 released by China Electronics Standardization Institute.

Chapter 4

World Digital Economy Development

4.1 Outline Today, the world is undergoing great changes that have not been seen in a century, with a complex and grim international economic pattern. A new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation accelerates, and digitaltechnology innovation comes to a stage of multiple-filed breakthroughs and cluster development. This triggers new technologies, new industries, new business forms and new models, and induces far-reaching changes in production factors, organizational forms and competitive paradigms. Under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, global economy shrank by around 3.3% in 2020. International Monetary Fund predicted that global economy would grow by 6% in 2021. Digital economy becomes the primary strategic choice for major countries in the world to hedge against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and speed up socioeconomic transformation. Globally, China and the United States rank top two in the scale of digital economy, and the gap in digital-economy competitiveness between them further narrows. The integration and development of global digital economy deepen. Digital industrialization develops steadily, basic telecommunications industry advances stably, electronic information manufacturing industry grows firmly, information technology service industry like big data, AI and blockchain maintains a high-speed-development trend, and Internet information content service industry expands against headwinds, with eye-catching performance. Industrial digitalization serves as a key leading force that stimulates global digital economy. Fintech emerges vigorously, and blockchain finance and smart finance attract wide attention. Various countries in the world all deploy digital currencies, and the market competition becomes increasingly fierce. Struck by the COVID-19 pandemic, global total retail sales drop off; yet, E-Commerce grows against headwinds, and cross-border E-Commerce develops at a high speed. In the long term, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, which facilitates the diversification, regionalization and localization of international supply-chain © Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, World Internet Development Report 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7_4

97

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systems, and has a deep impact on the pattern of international labor division. Digital economy accelerates its integration and penetration into other industries and becomes a new driving force for global economic growth.

4.2 The Development Trend of Global Digital Economy Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the momentum of global economic growth weakens, and uncertainties and instabilities intensify. However, digital economy achieves remarkable progress. Enterprises have an active part in innovation and business, digital investment increases significantly, and digital trade grows against headwinds.

4.2.1 Countries Actively Promote the Strategic Layout in Cutting-Edge Fields Major countries and regions in the world regard digital economy as the primary choice for development strategies, actively advance the legislative work of digital economy, deploy in cutting-edge fields, and foster the standardized and innovative development of digital economy. 1. Actively Promoting the Legislative Work of Digital Economy Major countries in the world endeavor to boost the legislation of digital economy. In May 2020, Japan issued The Law on Improving the Transparency and Fairness of Specific Digital Platforms. As the first law in Japan that restricts large IT enterprises, the Law aims to urge relevant enterprises to disclose their signing conditions, pricing methods, refunding process and operational methods in relation to enterprises that open stores on their platforms. Besides, the Law requires IT enterprises to report their business operations to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan on an annual basis, so as to create a highly transparent business environment. The European Union has played an active role in the legislative work for competition in digital economy field. In December 2020, the European Commission launched the public proposals of Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, which aimed to define the responsibilities of digital-service providers, strengthen supervision on social media, E-Commerce platforms and other online platforms, establish a more open and fairer European digital market for free competition, enhance the innovation, growth and competitiveness of European digital industry, and provide consumers with safer, more transparent and more trustworthy online services. The public proposal of Digital Markets Act clearly proposed the “gatekeeper” system, further clarified regulatory obligations, regulatory measures, sanctions and other innovative measures, and strengthened regulations on online platforms. In April 2021, the European Commission issued Artificial Intelligence Regulation, which aimed to build Europe into a

4.2 The Development Trend of Global Digital Economy

99

trusted global AI center. The new Regulation combined the legal framework of AI with the coordination plan of the EU member states to strengthen the EU’s investment and innovation in AI while safeguarding the basic rights of individuals and enterprises. For example, for the use of face recognition and other technologies, a prior-review system was introduced. The United States also speeds up the introduction of relevant laws. In May 2021, the U.S. Senate zealously launched the United States Innovation and Competition Act, which covered clauses such as aerospace, 5G, “Made in the U.S.A.”, cybersecurity and AI, unmanned aerial vehicles, medical research and antitrust. 2. Continuously Strengthening the Strategic Deployment of Digital Economy In order to adapt to new challenges from the development of digital technology, major economies in the world continuously strengthen and improve national toplevel scientific and technological strategic layout and the strategic deployment of digital economy, with an attempt to forge new advantages for the future development of digital technology. In October 2020, the White House of the United States released National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology, which re-defined 20 critical and emerging technologies, and proposed to consolidate the U.S. global leadership in the field of quantum, AI and other cutting-edge technologies. In February 2021, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation of the United States released the report A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Global Digital Economy, which proposed that the U.S. government must formulate a comprehensive and grand strategy to guide U.S. IT and digital policies in order to safeguard its own leadership in the global digital economy. Since 2020, the European Commission has published strategic documents such as A European Strategy for Data, White Paper on Artificial Intelligence and Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, which stated that the European Commission planned to invest immense amount of money to support the development of revolutionary and strategic technologies like AI, supercomputer, quantum communication and blockchain. In alignment with “2030 Common Digital Vision” proposed by the European Union, in March 2021, the European Commission published 2030 Digital Compass: The European Way for the Digital Decade, which transformed the EU’s digital vision in 2030 into specific provisions, and put forward the vision, goal and path to successfully realize the digital transformation of Europe by 2030. In March 2021, the European Union adopted the first strategic plan for Horizon Europe, viz. Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021–2024, which determined critical strategic orientation, strategic plan, major task and international cooperation in research and innovation in next three years. In May 2021, the European Commission issued the new version of EU Industrial Strategy, which focused on strengthening the resilience of single market against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, coping with European strategic dependencies, and accelerating the green and digital transition, with a series of measures, including reviewing the dependencies in strategic areas such as semiconductor, cloud and edge technology, promoting the establishment of processor and semiconductor technology alliance and industrial data, edge and cloud alliance,

100

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and providing small and medium-sized enterprises with business models that can meet sustainable development and support data-driven development. In January 2021, the Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology of South Korea released “5G + ” Strategic Promotion Plan in 2021 (Draft) and Development Plan for MEC-Based 5G Integrated Services, which planned to invest 165.5 billion KRW to develop new 5G-integrated technologies and lead the innovation ecology of global 5G industry. At the end of 2020, Japan released Basic Plan for Science and Technology (Draft), which proposed that in future scientific and technological innovation, Japan would focus on developing digital technology and promoting the digital upgrading of research systems. In June 2021, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan officially released Semiconductor · Digital Industry Strategy, which further clarified the importance of the semiconductor industry as the basis of digital industry, and explicitly stated that Japan would pursue “beyond ordinary industrial policies” to improve the domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity and the localization level of new-generation manufacturing technology.

4.2.2 The Development Pattern Basically Remains Stable The trend of digitalization of global economy intensifies. Traditional industries accelerate their transformation and upgrading towards digitalization, networking and intelligentization, and the scale of digital economy continues to expand. According to White Paper on Global Digital Economy: New Dawn of Recovery Under the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic published by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), in 2020, the scale of digital economy in 47 countries in the world achieved 32.6 trillion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 3.0%, accounting for 43.7% of their GDP. Digital economy becomes a new driving force for global economic development. Taking the income level into account, the scale of digital economy in high-income countries reaches 25.3 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 77.6%. In consideration of economic development, the scale of digital economy in developed countries is nearly treble that of developing countries. In the development of digital economy in various countries, the United States relies on the advantages in technological innovation and takes the lead in global digital economy. In 2020, the scale of digital economy in the United States realized 13.6 trillion U.S. dollars and ranked the 1st in the world again. With strong domestic market advantages, China vigorously implements technological innovation and model reform. The volume of Chinese digital economy ranks the 2nd in the world, with a scale of 5.4 trillion U.S. dollars. Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom rank the 3rd, 4th and 5th, with a scale of 2.54 trillion U.S. dollars, 2.48 trillion U.S. dollars and 1.79 trillion U.S. dollars respectively. In the scale of digital economy, the top five countries account for 79.2% of the total scale of the world.

4.2 The Development Trend of Global Digital Economy

101

According to Global Digital Economy Competitiveness Development Report 2020 released by Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, in terms of national competitiveness, the United States has ranked the 1st in the world in digital economy competitiveness for four years running, and Singapore and China rank the 2nd and 3rd respectively. Particularly, the gap between China and the United States in digital economy competitiveness narrows annually. In terms of sub-indexes, China has ranked the 1st in the world in digital industry competitiveness for four consecutive years, with great strength in digital infrastructure competitiveness. Yet, China needs to improve digital innovation competitiveness and digital governance competitiveness.

4.2.3 Internet Enterprises Develop Rapidly The analysis of the financial-report data of listed companies in global digital economy in 2020 unveils that in the top-50 list of business revenue, the United States has 31 companies on the list, with the largest number. In the top 10 list of business revenue, the United States occupies seven seats, of which Apple ranks the 1st. As the financialreport data in 2020 suggest, Apple, Google and Microsoft ranked top three, while JD, Alibaba and Tencent of China ranked the 4th, 6th and 10th respectively. Table 4.1 shows “List of Top 50 Digital Economy Corporations in Global Business Revenue in Fiscal Year 2020”.

4.2.4 The Investment in Digital Economy Increases Significantly Against the background of slow recovery of global economy, global investment and financing to Internet increase significantly. According to the data of CB Insights, in the first quarter of 2021, global investment and financing to Internet totaled 99.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 66.7% quarter on quarter, up 164.5% year on year. The number of financing reached 5,147, up 8.4% quarter on quarter, up 11% year on year. The United States and China remain the most active markets for investment and financing to Internet in the world and stand in the first echelon for many years. Figure 4.1 shows overall financing of global digital economy enterprises from 2020 to Q1 2021. In the investment stage, the early investment accounted for 76.9%, with a quarteron-quartergrowth rate of 0.8%. Specifically, angel investment accounted for 56.2% and A-round investment accounted for 20.7%. In the financing field, only financing in Internet accounted for more than 25%. 129 start-ups that engaged in blockchain raised around 2.6 billion U.S. dollars, more than 2.3 billion U.S. dollars raised in 341-time financing in 2020.

The United States

The United States

China

The United States

Google

Microsoft

JD.com

Dell

Alibaba

Facebook

Intel

IBM

Tencent

HP

Lenovo

Cisco

tsmc

Oracle

Xiaomi

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

China

The United States

Taiwan, China

The United States

China

The United States

China

The United States

The United States

The United States

China

Countries and regions

The United States

Corporations

Apple

Ranking

1

339.8

394.0

447.1

480.7

525.5

566.4

666.9

750.3

781.0

789.8

858.4

921.4

1,016.4

1,471.1

1,717.0

2,745.2

Business revenue

41

40

39

38

37

36

35

34

33

32

31

30

29

28

27

26

Ranking

Countries and regions

The United States

The United States

The United States

The United States

The United States

The United States

South Korea

The United States

The United States

The United States

The United States

Singapore

Meituan

Baidu

MasterCard

China

China

The United States

ASML Holding N.V The Netherlands

Western Digital Corporation

CTSH (CTSH.O)

Applied Materials (AMAT)

Avnet

CDW

DXC

LG

Salesforce

PAYPAL

Micron

Visa

Flex

Corporations

Table 4.1 List of Top 50 digital economy corporations in global business revenue in fiscal year 2020 (Unit: 100 Million U.S. Dollars)

154.3

155.2

156.0

160.6

166.2

167.5

172.0

177.3

180.5

188.9

190.6

202.9

203.0

214.4

218.5

(continued)

Business revenue 231.9

102 4 World Digital Economy Development

Germany

Japan

The United States

Sweden

The United States

SAP

Canon

Jabil Inc

Arrow Electronics

Nokia

Ericsson

Broadcom

SYNNEX

Qualcomm

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Data Source: Wind Global Listed Companies Database

The United States

The United States

Finland

The United States

Countries and regions

Corporations

Ranking

17

Table 4.1 (continued)

235.3

238.4

238.9

255.6

260.6

275.6

275.9

299.7

326.8

Business revenue

50

49

48

47

46

45

44

43

42

Ranking

AMD

CGI Group Inc

Yahoo! JAPAN

STMicroelectronics

NetEase

Uber

Texas Instruments

ADP

NVIDIA

Corporations

The United States

Canada

Japan

The Netherlands

China

The United States

The United States

The United States

The United States

Countries and regions

86.5

91.1

97.4

97.4

102.3

129.8

137.4

145.6

147.8

Business revenue

4.2 The Development Trend of Global Digital Economy 103

104

4 World Digital Economy Development

Fig. 4.1 Overall financing of global digital economy enterprises from 2020 to Q1 2021

4.2.5 Global Digital Trade Grows Against Headwinds Digital trade propels the development of global trade towards digital services. According to White Paper on the Development of Digital Trade 2020 published by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), the scale of global digital trade (export) reached 3,192.59 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, with an against-headwinds growth rate of 3.75%, higher than these of trade in service and goods trade year on year. Global digital trade (export) accounted for 52% of trade in service and for 12.9% of all the trade. In 2020, the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic further quickened the development of digital trade. In the development of digital trade, the digital divide remains grim. In comparison with trade in service and intangible goods trade, developed economies possess more prominent advantages in the field of digital service trade. In 2019, the scale of digitalservice export of developed economies reached 2431 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 76.1% of global digital-service export, higher than that in trade in service and goods trade. The United States and Europe dominate global digital trade market. In 2019, five countries, i.e. the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, accounted for c. 50% of global digital-service export. Among them, the United States alone accounted for 16.7%.

4.3 Digital Industrialization Develops Steadily

105

4.2.6 Digital Economy Helps to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic Globally The COVID-19 pandemic rages globally. As macroeconomic data suggest, global fixed asset investment, consumption and foreign trade decline drastically. In contrast, digital industry jumps against headwinds and makes a positive contribution to overall economy. Taking online retail as an example. The data released by National Bureau of Statistics of China indicate that in 2020, China’s online retail sales amounted to 11,760.1 billion yuan, up 10.9% over 2019. Among them, online retail sales of physical goods achieved 9759 billion yuan, with an increase of 14.8%, accounting for 24.9% of the total retail sales of social consumer goods. In online retail sales of physical goods, food, clothing and consumer goods increased by 30.6%, 5.8% and 16.2% respectively. According to the market research report released by McKinsey & Company, in 2019, c. 86% of Italian households paid in cash. Since the end of February 2020, Italian E-Commerce transaction volume had increased by more than 80%, and the number of consumers using cash had decreased substantially. According to 2020 Consumer Payment Attitudes Study organized by VISA, a credit card company, three quarters of consumers in Southeast Asia use non-contact payment more often than two years ago. According to a market research report released by Brazilian Consumer Defense Association, in the first two months of 2021, in Brazil, national mobile-payment transaction time and volume increased by 112% and 108% year on year respectively, and the number of consumers using cash decreased remarkably. Under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, new business forms like online education, telework and telemedicine are in the ascendant. Some enterprises engaged in digital economy understand the changes in consumers’ psychology and behavior in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, seize the opportunity of economic recovery, and extend their industrial chains. For instance, in “2025 Medium-Term Business Plan” published by NEC Corporation, NEC Corporation will focus on such business areas as “e-government”, “digital finance”, “global 5G” and “core digital transformation” in the future.

4.3 Digital Industrialization Develops Steadily Over the past year, global basic telecommunications industry advanced steadily, electronic information manufacturing industry grew stably, information technology service industries like big data, AI and blockchain maintained a high-speed development trend, and Internet information content service industry progressed against headwinds, with eye-catching performance.

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4.3.1 Basic Telecommunications Industry Forges Ahead in a Stable Way Global basic telecommunications industry displays an upward trend, and 5G market scale grows fast, which drive the steady development of telecommunications industry. 1. Telecommunications Industry Remains Relatively Stable In the light of the data released by Grand View Research, a market consulting agency, the scale of global telecommunications service market in 2020 reached 1,657.7 billion U.S. dollars, of which mobile data service market took up the largest share, accounting for one third. In 2020, impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for telecommunications services in some corporate and commercial apps slowed down, which hit the business revenue of telecommunications enterprises. In 2020, the business revenues of AT&T, Verizon and NTT all sank. In several decades, global communication network boasted one of prominent areas with continuous technological advancement. As users multiply, demands for highspeed data connection and value-added management service keep growing, which promotes long-term sustainable growth of global telecommunications market. As Grand View Research predicts, the market scale will grow at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2021 to 2028. 2. 5G Service Market Grows Fast According to the data released by Grand View Research, a market consulting agency, in 2020, the scale of global 5G service market reached 41.48 billion U.S. dollars. Predictably, the market scale will grow at a CAGR of 46.2% from 2021 to 2028. In the construction of 5G in the world, the Asia–Pacific Region boasts the largest investment and biggest support, followed by North America and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). By December 2020, the total number of 5G base stations in the world had exceeded 1.02 million. To be specific, China has 718,000 5G base stations, South Korea has more than 121,000 5G base stations, the United States has around 100,000 5G base stations, Germany has more than 45,000 5G base stations, and Japan has more than 35,000 5G base stations.

4.3.2 Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry Advances Steadily The COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on global electronic information industry; yet, the overall market scale grows firmly, especially the semiconductor market. 1. Global Semiconductor Market Stabilizes and Rebounds According to the data of Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) of the United States, in 2020, global semiconductor market stabilized and rebounded, with a business revenue of 439 billion U.S. dollars, up by 6.5% over 2019. In particular, in the

4.3 Digital Industrialization Develops Steadily

107

Fig. 4.2 The business revenue of global semiconductor industry from 2017 to 2020

fourth quarter, the business revenue of semiconductor industry reached 117.5 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 8.3% year on year, offsetting the sudden drop in March and April. The business revenue of American chip manufacturers realized c. 208 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for around 47% of the global semiconductor market. Figure 4.2 shows the business revenue of global semiconductor industry from 2017 to 2020. In April 2021, Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) of the United States jointly published the report Strengthening the Global Semiconductor Supply Chain in an Uncertain Era, which emphasized that presently, Japan, South Korea, China (Taiwan and the mainland of China) took up c. 75% of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity. In the next decade, the global semiconductor supply chain calls for the investment of around 3 trillion U.S. dollars (R&D and capital expenditure), and semiconductor companies need to continuously invest more than 90 billion U.S. dollars a year to develop more complex chips, which amount to around 20% of global semiconductor sales. The mainland of China is expected to become the largest semiconductor manufacturing base in the world in the next decade. 2. The Growth Rate of the Business Revenue of Global Telecommunications Equipment Market Hits a New High According to the report released by Dell’ Oro Group, in 2020, global telecommunications equipment market reached c. 114.5 billion U.S. dollars in business revenue, with an increase of 7% year-on-year. As the fastest growth rate since 2011, it mainly resulted from the robust growth in business revenue in various wireless fields, including wireless access network and mobile core network, as well as the moderate

108

4 World Digital Economy Development

growth in the number of broadband access. Among them, the growth rate of the business revenue of 5G wireless access network and core network proved beyond expectation. As predicted, in 2021, the business revenue of the niche market would reach 20 billion U.S. dollars, via which the total business revenue of telecommunications equipment market achieved 120 billion U.S. dollars. 3. Global 5G Smart Phones Develop Rapidly As the data of Strategy Analytics suggest, global 5G smart phones develop rapidly. The shipment realizes a year-on-year increase of 458%, leaping from 24 million in the first quarter of 2020 to 133.9 million in the first quarter of 2021. In global market share, in the first quarter of 2021, Apple’s mobile phone sales totaled 40.4 million, with a market share of 30.2%, ranking the 1st in the number. The market shares of Chinese brands OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi mobile phones reached 16.1%, 14.5% and 12.4% respectively, ranking the 2nd, 3rd and 5th in number. The market share of Samsung’s mobile phone reached 12.7%, ranking the 4th in number. The market share of other mobile phones was 14.2%. Table 4.2 shows the market share and shipment of global 5G mobile phones. 4. Global Wearable Device Market Continues to Expand According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, from 2013 to 2020, global shipment of wearable devices presented an uptrend year by year. In 2020, global shipment of wearable devices realized 444.7 million, up 28.4% year on year. Particularly, in the fourth quarter of 2020, global shipment of wearable devices reached 153.5 million, with an increase of 27.2% year on year. In niche brands, Apple’s shipment of wearable devices reached 55.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, with an increase of 27.2% year on year and a market share of 36.2%, ranking the 1st. The shipments of Samsung and Huawei’s wearable devices totaled 13 million and 10.2 million respectively. IDC predicts that the average CAGR of wearable device market will be 12.4% in the next five years, reaching 637.1 million by 2024. Table 4.2 The market share and shipment of global 5G mobile phones Companies

The first quarter of 2020 Shipment/1 Million

Market share (%)

Shipment/1 Million

Market share (%)

Apple

0

0

40.4

30.20

The first quarter of 2021

OPPO

1.7

7.10

21.5

16.10

vivo

2.6

10.80

19.4

14.50

Samsung

8.3

34.60

17

12.70

Xiaomi

2.5

10.40

16.6

12.40

Others

8.9

37.10

19

14.20

Total

24

100

133.9

100

Data Source Strategy Analytics

4.3 Digital Industrialization Develops Steadily

109

4.3.3 Software and Information Technology Service Industry Develops Quickly The continuous innovation and wide-range application of information technology set off the robust development of global IoT industry. The competition in cloud computing market becomes increasingly fierce, and big data service industry displays prominent potential and strong growth momentum. Blockchain develops rapidly and produces positive results in various countries. 1. IoT Industry Continues to Flourish According to data released by IDC, global IoT expenditure reached 690.47 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. In the future, IoT expenditure on manufacturing, government and consumer will account for more than half of the total market expenditure. Particularly, IoT expenditure in consumer areas such as IoV service, smart home and medical health monitoring will grow at a high speed. As IDC predicts, global IoT market scale will realize 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars by 2025, with an average CAGR of 11.4%. 2. The Competition in Cloud Computing Market Becomes Increasingly Fierce As data released by IDC indicate, in 2020, the sales revenue of global cloud computing market increased by 24.1% year on year, with a total revenue of 312.4 billion U.S. dollars. Specifically, the market sales revenue of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) reached 67.2 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 33.9% year on year. The market sales revenue of Platform as a Service (PaaS) achieved 47.6 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 31.8% year on year. The market sales revenue of Software as a Service (SaaS, including system-infrastructure software and service and application software as a service) realized 197.6 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for more than 63.2% of global cloud computing market. Table 4.3 shows the sales revenue, market share and growth rate of global cloud computing market from 2019 to 2020. Table 4.3 The sales revenue, market share and growth rate of global cloud computing market from 2019 to 2020 Type of Service

IaaS

2019

2020

Sales revenue /100 Million U.S. dollar

Market share

Sales revenue /100 Million U.S. dollar

Market share (%)

502

19.90%

672

21.50

Growth rate (%)

33.90

PaaS

361

14.40%

476

15.20

31.80

SISaa

402

16%

492

15.70

22.40

AppSaaS

1,252

49.70%

1,484

47.50

18.60

Total

2,517

100%

3,124

100

100

Data Source IDC

110

4 World Digital Economy Development

In corporate market share, in 2020, the total cloud computing revenue of top five public cloud service providers (i.e. AWS, Microsoft, Salesforce, Google and Oracle) reached 118.8 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 32% year on year, accounting for 38% of global market. In IaaS, SISaaS and PaaS markets, Amazon ranks the 1st with the market share of 24.1%, and Microsoft ranks the 2nd with the market share of 16.6%. Microsoft plays an influential role in SaaS market. In the second half of 2020, Microsoft had a market share of 8.7%, and Salesforce took the lead with a market share of 9.3% in SaaS market. 3. Big Data Service Market Possesses Great Potential According to the data of MarketsandMarkets, a market consulting agency, in 2020, global big data service market scale approximated 138.9 billion U.S. dollars. From 2021 to 2025, the average CAGR of global big data service market will reach 10.6%. By 2025, the scale of global big data service market will grow to 229.4 billion U.S. dollars. Regionally, owing to the wide use of IoT devices, North America will become the region with the largest market share of global big data service, and the Asia−Pacific Region will have the highest CAGR of big data service market, with the market share continually rising. 4. Blockchain Market Continues to Expand at a High Speed In recent years, blockchain technology has been widely used in various fields, with high popularity in the market. According to incomplete statistics from 01 Think Tank, from 2020 to the first quarter of 2021, global blockchain sector raised a total of 1,010 times, with a publicly disclosed financing of 13.438 billion yuan. In the first quarter of 2021, there were 365 times of financing in the global blockchain field, and the number of financing presented an overall uptrend. The financing reached 8.697 billion yuan, with an increase of 851.53% over the fourth quarter of 2020. Stimulated by capital factors, global blockchain market continues to grow at a high speed. KEYFAN Exchange carried out statistical survey of global blockchain data, revealing that blockchain market scale valued 3.67 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. Predictably, it continues to expand at a CAGR of 82.4% from 2021 to 2028.

4.3.4 Internet Information Content Service Industry Grows Against Headwinds In view of the continuous maturity and wide application of 5G technology, global Internet information content service industry develops rapidly, the scale of digital advertising market grows constantly, the scale of content distribution network market expands incessantly, the scale of streaming media market progresses against headwinds, and the scale of online game market hits a new high. 1. The Scale of Digital Advertising Market Keeps Thriving

4.3 Digital Industrialization Develops Steadily

111

With the continued development of Internet, the scale of global digital advertising market grows year after year on the whole. As the report of Univ Datos suggests, digital advertising serves as a necessary tool for publishers, advertising technology providers and advertising agencies. In 2020, the scale of digital advertising market realized around 300 billion U.S. dollars. As estimated, by 2023, the expense on digital advertising will account for two thirds of the total advertising expenses. Predictably, global digital advertising market will rise with a CAGR of 7.7% from 2021 to 2026. By 2026, the market scale will value 626 billion U.S. dollars. 2. Content Distribution Network Market Expands Continuously Over the past year, with the continuous application of high-speed networks, the quantity of data exchanged on the Internet rose constantly, and the scale of content distribution network market grew steadily. As the data of Grand View Markets disclosed, the scale of global content distribution networks market valued 10.73 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. As estimated, the CAGR of global content distribution network market will reach c. 22.1% from 2021 to 2028. 3. Music Streaming Media Market Grows Against Headwinds The COVID-19 pandemic accelerates the consumption of streaming media content. The number of subscribers to videos, music, games, podcasts and other services continues to enlarge, with significant growth in music market. According to Global Music Report 2020 released by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, offline performances came to a standstill, and streaming media service played a pivotal role in the industrial growth and hedged against the impact of income decline in other fields. In 2020, the sales revenue of global recorded music market went up, and the market scale reached 21.6 billion U.S. dollars, with a growing trend for six consecutive years. More precisely, the sales revenue of streaming media market rose by 19.9% to 13.4 billion U.S. dollars. 4. The Scale of Online Game Market Hits a New High According to the data of Newzoo, a market research agency, in 2020, global online game market sales revenue totaled 159.3 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 9.3% year on year. Concretely speaking, the scale of global mobile game market increased remarkably, with an overall increment of c. 20 billion U.S. dollars, up 25.6% year on year. In the future, the participation of global online game player and overall sales revenue of game market would continue to grow. In 2021, the scale of global online game market would hit 189.3 billion U.S. dollars, and the sales revenue of global cloud game market would exceed 1 billion U.S. dollars for the first time.

112

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4.4 Industrial Digitalization Continues to Deepen In terms of global digital economy, the trend of integrated development further deepens, and industrial digitalization becomes a key force that drives the development of global digital economy.

4.4.1 The Digitalization of Manufacturing Industry Further Advances Developed countries accelerate the practice of “Re-industrialization”, take newgeneration information technology as a key factor to solidify or re-shape the competitive advantage of industrial chains, and deepen the integrated development of digital technology and the manufacturing industrial system. And emerging market economies speed up their industrialization. The pace of digitalization of industrial robots quickens and promotes the digital transformation of manufacturing industry. 1. Industrial Internet Industry Develops Rapidly With the advancement of new technologies like AI, IoT and cloud computing, a new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation comes to rise. In order to take the leading position in economic growth, major manufacturing countries all increase their investments in industrial Internet, aiming to promote the networked, digital and intelligent development of manufacturing industry by deepening the integration of new-generation information technology and manufacturing industry. Considering the development of global industrial Internet, countries and regions like the United States, Europe and the Asia−Pacific Region play a key role in the development of industrial Internet. Germany rests on the strong foundation in automation to promote the application of “Industry 4.0”. The United States vigorously develops industrial Internet and implements the advanced manufacturing strategy. France, Japan, South Korea and Sweden also start manufacturing revitalization plans. As Accenture predicts, by 2030, industrial Internet will produce more than 15 trillion U.S. dollars in global economic growth. 2. The Scale of Industrial Robot Market Grows Continuously According to the data of International Federation of Robotics (IFR), by the end of 2019, 2.7 million industrial robots kept running in global factories, with an increase of 12%. In 2019, the sales of new industrial robots remained at a high level, and global shipment of industrial robots reached 373,000. In regional distribution, Asia boasts the market with the strongest demand for industrial robots, whose number of new industrial robots accounts for two thirds of the world. According to the data of Frost & Sullivan, as estimated, global industrial robot market will increase from 22.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 to 38.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, with a CAGR of 12.2%.

4.4 Industrial Digitalization Continues to Deepen

113

4.4.2 The Digitalization of Service Industry Accelerates 1. The Scale of Online Education Market Grows Rapidly The COVID-19 pandemic further alters the scale of online education market. According to the data of UNESCO, in March 2020, schools had to suspend classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which perturbed more than 1.2 billion students in 186 countries. Besides, the number of students who chose telelearning soared in an unprecedented way. As the data of Grand View Research demonstrate, the scale of global online education market exceeded 250 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. The emergence of new technologies like AI, virtual reality (VR) and cloud-architecturebased Learning Management System (LMS) will promote the rapid growth of online education market. As estimated, the average annual growth rate of the market scale will be higher than 21% from 2021 to 2027. Regionally, with rich high-quality education resources and complete network infrastructure, the scale of online education market in North America accounted for c. 35% of the world in 2020, and the average annual growth rate of the market scale will exceed 17% in the next five years, as predicted. In Europe, several top German universities offer online learning courses, and the scale of online education market maintains rapid growth. 2. Online Medical Market Develops Rapidly In the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a considerable amount of medical and health care services like online consultation, telemedicine and health monitoring are transferred to digital platforms. As the data of Global Industry Analysts suggest, in 2020, the scale of global online medical market achieved c. 152.4 billion U.S. dollars. As estimated, the average CAGR of the market scale will reach 18.8% from 2020 to 2027. By 2027, the scale of global online medical market will reach 508.8 billion U.S. dollars. Enterprises actively promote the development of online medical business. Zocdoc platform collaborates with other medical institutions on launching the COVID-19vaccination appointment service. At the beginning of 2021, Microsoft announced to establish partnerships with MIT, Harvard University and Verily to promote the construction of AI and cloud service network, which would cover more than 168,000 medical institutions worldwide. Home State Health, a healthcare company, reached a cooperation intention with Babylon, planning to provide users with online consultation services by means of mobile apps.

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4.4.3 Agricultural Digitalization Advances Steadily The integrated development of new-generation information technology and agriculture deepens, which accelerates the realization of online monitoring, precision operation and digital management of agricultural production, and fosters the “agricultural digital revolution”. 1. Smart Agricultural Market Develops Firmly As the report of MarketsandMarkets suggests, in the statistics of agricultural type (e.g. precision agriculture, animal husbandry, aquaculture and greenhouse cultivation), hardware (e.g. global positioning systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, sensors, radio frequency identification and LED plant growth lights), software and service, the scale of global smart agriculture market reached 13.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. Predictably, by 2025, the market scale will increase to 22 billion U.S. dollars, with an average annual growth rate of 9.8%. Particularly, the Asia Pacific Region will see the fastest-growing market scale. 2. Digital Technology Improves Agricultural Productivity As the most active agricultural productivity, new-generation information technology boosts the transformation of agricultural production mode from mechanization to digitalization. Agricultural robots become the most widely used equipment in digital agriculture. The research of Facts and Factors signals that in 2019, the scale of global agricultural robot and UAV market achieved c. 4.04 billion U.S. dollars, and that the CAGR of the market scale would exceed 18.9%, as estimated. By 2026, the market scale will outnumber 13.58 billion U.S. dollars. Presently, global agricultural robot market focuses on driverless tractors, pesticide-spraying drones, milking robots and other fields. Take China’s plant-protection UAV as an example. The number of them has reached more than 60,000, with an operating area of one billion mu.

4.5 The Pace of Fintech Innovation Accelerates As Fintech develops vigorously worldwide, blockchain finance and AiFinance arouse wide attention among various sectors. Countries in the world successively deploy digital currencies, and market competition becomes increasingly fierce.

4.5.1 Blockchain Finance Presents a Trend of Steady Development The development of global digital payment spawns the demand for blockchain technology in various sectors. According to the survey of KEYFAN Exchange, in 2020,

4.5 The Pace of Fintech Innovation Accelerates

115

the payment sector accounted for more than 44% of global blockchain market sales revenue. Simultaneously, on the premise of ensuring financial security, blockchain technology helps to simplify the operational process of financial organs, improve the efficiency of economic services, and achieve the deep integration with more real economies. In May 2021, World Economic Forum released the report Digital Assets, Distributed Ledger Technology and the Future of Capital Markets, which probed into the urgent needs of capital markets for digital transformation, pointing out that market forces were promoting the digitalization of capital-market participants and propelling them into considering the use of distributed ledger technology.

4.5.2 AiFinance Faces Both Opportunities and Challenges As a research report of Mordor Intelligence evinces, in 2020, the scale of global AiFinance market realized c. 7.91 billion U.S. dollars. As expected, by 2026, the market scale will reach 26.67 billion U.S. dollars, with an average CAGR of more than 23.1%. With rapid development, AiFinance constantly challenges the existent law, ethics and order, e.g. how to cope with the risk of disclosure of personal investment information or sensitive corporate data. To address the problems that arise from the application of AiFinance calls for the multi-dimensional and multi-level cogovernance among government, market and society, which can reduce the risk of AiFinance.

4.5.3 Digital Currency Flourishes Globally, countries step up the R&D of central bank digital currencies. With respect to the development trend and vision of global central bank digital currencies, Bank for International Settlements investigates central banks in the world, revealing that central banks in most emerging-market economies take a positive attitude towards the development of central bank digital currencies, whilst central banks in developed countries hold relatively cautious stance. Among 66 central banks, 10% of them state they will issue central bank digital currencies in the next three years, which will affect 1.6 billion people, accounting for 20% of the world’s population. In 2020, the European Union released Report on a Digital Euro. The United States proposes a digital dollar plan, and Russian Central Bank plans to start testing digital rouble in 2022. As expected, major central bank digital currencies in the world will be actualized in five years, which will comprehensively re-shape financial industry and provide a safer, more reliable and more intelligent new payment system for global trade, with the furtherance of industrial transformation.

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4.6 E-Commerce Maintains a Trend of High-Speed Development Under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the total global retail sales decreases on the whole, yet E-Commerce grows against headwinds. The turnover of E-Commerce increases slowly in the Asia−Pacific Region and significantly in other regions, with cross-border E-Commerce booming.

4.6.1 The Market Scale Continues to Rise E-Commerce sales continues to rise, with higher proportion of retail sales. According to the data of eMarketer, in 2020, global E-Commerce sales reached 4,280 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 18.0% of retail sales, up 4.4% over 2019. As predicted, the proportion would reach 20.4% by 2022. Figure 4.3 shows global E-Commerce sales and its proportion of retail sales from 2018 to 2022. In 2020, global E-Commerce sales increased by 27.6%, up 7.4% over 2019. With the normalization of the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery of physical commerce, the growth rate of global E-Commerce market scale would slow down in 2021, as estimated. Figure 4.4 shows the growth rate of global E-Commerce sales from 2018 to 2022.

Fig. 4.3 Global E-Commerce sales and its proportion of retail sales from 2018 to 2022. Data Source eMarketer

4.6 E-Commerce Maintains a Trend of High-Speed Development

117

Fig. 4.4 The growth rate of global E-Commerce sales from 2018 to 2022. Data Source eMarketer

4.6.2 The Competition Pattern Becomes More Stable E-Commerce sales in the Asia−Pacific Region and North America take the lead in global E-Commerce market. In 2020, E-Commerce sales in the Asia−Pacific Region totaled 2,448.33 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 62.6% of global E-Commerce market. E-Commerce sales in North America and Western Europe accounted for 19.1% and 12.7% respectively. China becomes the largest E-Commerce market in the world, with the highest penetration rate of E-Commerce. Figure 4.5 shows the E-Commerce sales of various regions in the world in 2020. In various countries, in 2020, E-Commerce sales in China realized 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 29% of the total global E-Commerce sales, ranking the 1st. E-Commerce sales in the United States reached 795 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 10% of the world, ranking the 2nd. The United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea trod on the heels, with E-Commerce sales of 180 billion U.S. dollars, 141 billion U.S. dollars and 111 billion U.S. dollars respectively. In 2020, India’s E-Commerce sales valued 55.6 billion U.S. dollars, ranking the 8th in the world. In the growth rate of E-Commerce sales, E-Commerce sales in the Asia–Pacific Region grew quickly in 2020. Among top 10 countries in the growth rate of global ECommerce, there were four in the Asia−Pacific Region, i.e. the Philippines (25.0%), Malaysia (23.0%), India (21.0%) and South Korea (19.5%), as shown in Fig. 4.6. The development of E-Commerce in European countries accelerated. To be specific, the growth rate of E-Commerce in Spain increased from 15.7% in 2019 to 22.9% in 2020, in Italy from 15.0% to 20.5%, and in the Netherlands from 15.5% to 21.9%.

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Fig. 4.5 The E-Commerce sales of various regions in the World in 2020. Data Source eMarketer

Fig. 4.6 Top 10 countries in the growth rate of global E-Commerce in 2020. Data Source eMarketer

4.6.3 Cross-Border E-Commerce Develops Rapidly In the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, cross-border E-Commerce developed fast and became a new growth point for stabilizing foreign trade. According to the joint research of eMarketer, Statista and J.P. Morgan, in 2020, the cross-border ECommerce procurement volume of the United States reached 270.1 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 34% of global E-Commerce procurement volume. These in

4.6 E-Commerce Maintains a Trend of High-Speed Development

119

Fig. 4.7 The main reasons that affect cross-border consumption and corresponding proportion of respondents in 2020. Data Source eMarketer

the United Kingdom, China, Germany and Canada reached c. 81 billion U.S. dollars, 34 billion U.S. dollars, 34 billion U.S. dollars and 25 billion U.S. dollars respectively. Australia, Mexico and Japan followed, with the cross-border E-Commerce procurement volume reaching 22 billion U.S. dollars, 15 billion U.S. dollars and 14 billion U.S. dollars respectively. In the sources of cross-border E-Commerce procurement goods in various countries, in 2020, these of the United States mainly came from China, accounting for c. 49% of the total, and these of the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia that came from China accounted for more than 40%. Owing to shipping restrictions, consumers attach most attention to logistics tracking when choosing cross-border E-Commerce. As relevant survey data manifest, logistics tracking plays the biggest role in the factors that affect cross-border consumption, followed by reasonable transporting time and simple return and refund policy. Figure 4.7 shows the main reasons that affect cross-border consumption and corresponding proportion of respondents in 2020.

Chapter 5

World Digital Government Development

5.1 Outline In recent years, various countries in the world vigorously promote the construction of digital government and successively release evaluation reports on the development of E-Government and the construction of digital government. Generally speaking, various countries mainly center on infrastructure, open government data (OGD), online governmental service, digital integration and participation and data privacy and security in the construction of digital government. Infrastructure establishes a foundation for the construction of digital government. In recent years, infrastructure construction presents a trend of regional cooperation. In open government data, more countries boost cross-departmental and cross-field data sharing and opening by standardizing data and constructing data-sharing platform, so as to release the value of public data to the maximum and enhance governmental transparency. After dozens-of-years development, online governmental services continuously improve service quality, and some countries develop late yet gain the upper hand. Various countries continue to bridge digital divide and energize citizens for public affairs.

5.2 The Evaluation and Development of World Digital Government In recent years, with the development of E-Government in various countries, international organizations and research institutions such as the United Nations (UN), IMD Business School (Lausanne, Switzerland), the World Information Technology and Services (WITSA), Portulans Institute (PI) and Waseda University continue to launch the evaluation of E-Government. Presently, in the comprehensive evaluation reports on the development of E-Government, some take countries as evaluation

© Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, World Internet Development Report 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7_5

121

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5 World Digital Government Development

objects, e.g. E-Government Survey issued by the United Nations,1 World Digital Competitiveness Ranking issued by IMD Business School,2 the Network Readiness Index jointly issued by Portulans Institute,3 ,4 and International Digital Government Rankings Report issued by Waseda University.

5.2.1 Comprehensive E-Government Evaluation In line with the UN E-Government Survey 2020, World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2020, Network Readiness Index 2020 and The 15th International Digital Government Rankings Report (2020), Table 5.1 shows comprehensive evaluation ranking of E-Government in various countries in the world. In general, Denmark, Sweden and the United States forge a high level of governmental digitalization and E-Government development, ranking top 10 in the four typical comprehensive E-Government-related evaluation reports. In this regard, China stands at the middle-upper level. Its comprehensive evaluation ranking rises steadily in the UN E-Government Survey 2020, World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2020 and Network Readiness Index 2020, yet slightly decreases in The 15th International Digital Government Rankings Report (2020). Additionally, UN E-Government Survey 20205 takes cities as evaluation objects and carries out relevant evaluation of E-Government development. The Survey is published every two years, and the latest report was published in May 2020 (see Table 5.2 for the ranking). The evaluation involves five dimensions, i.e. privacy and security, availability, content, service and citizen and social participation. In E-Government survey that takes countries and regions as the object, China ranks above the middle level. In the evaluation of E-Government that focuses on cities, Shanghai ranks in the top 10, in the three dimensions, i.e. availability, content and citizen and social participation.

1

Data Source: https://publicadministration.un.org/en/research/un-e-government-surveys. Data Source: https://www.imd.org/wcc/world-competitiveness-center-rankings/world-digitalcompetitiveness-rankings-2020/. 3 Data Source: https://networkreadinessindex.org/. 4 Data Source: The Network Readiness Index was firstly initiated by World Economic Forum in 2002. In 2019, the Network Readiness Index was re-designed and released by professors Soumitra Dutta and Bruno Lanvin, original designers of the Index, to represent how to integrate technology and personnel into effective governance structure to have an appropriate impact on economy, society and environment. Professors Soumitra Dutta and Bruno Lanvin are heads of Portulans Institute, a technology and innovation think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. 5 Published in 2020. 2

5.2 The Evaluation and Development of World Digital Government

123

Table 5.1 Comprehensive evaluation ranking of E-Government in various Countries in the World Statistics agency

UN 2020

IMD business school 2020

WITSA & PI 2020

Waseda University 2019/2020

The number of Countries and regions involved

193

63

134

64

Denmark

1

3

2

2

South Korea

2

8

14

9

Esthonia

3

21

23

5

Finland

4

10

6

15

Australia

5

15

12

6

Sweden

6

4

1

10

The United Kingdom

7

13

10

4

New Zealand

8

22

16

13

The United States

9

1

8

1

The Netherlands

10

7

4

20

Singapore

11

2

3

3

Iceland

12

23

21

21

Norway

13

9

7

12

Japan

14

27

15

7

Austria

14

17

18

24

China

45

16

40

37

5.2.2 The Construction of Infrastructure In recent years, various countries strengthen the construction of government infrastructure, constantly promote the construction of government informatization, government-cloud platform and data-center system, and enhance the rapid deployment and flexible expansion capacity of E-Government information systems, with the focus on 5G in the construction of E-Government infrastructure. British government includes 5G coverage in its “Five Billion Pound Project”, which builds an IoT that integrates optical fiber broadband and 5G services, provides more efficient and high-quality services, improves national transportation efficiency and energy efficiency, optimizes the living environment, and creates a worldleading digital economy that serves the public, by strengthening the construction of infrastructure.6 Meanwhile, cloud computing technology facilitates the development of EGovernment infrastructure. From 2019 to 2020, on the basis of Blueprint 2020, 6

Data Source: https://www.albanybeck.com/articles/uk-government-looks-to-boost-digital-infras tructure-with-large-cash-investments.

124 Table 5.2 The ranking of surveyed cities in global E-Government

5 World Digital Government Development Cities

Countries and Regions

Ranking

Seoul

South Korea

1

Madrid

Spain

2

Yerevan

Armenia

3

Auckland

New Zealand

4

Paris

France

5

Singapore

Singapore

6

Amsterdam

The Netherlands

7

Helsinki

Finland

8

Shanghai

China

Toronto

Canada

10

New York

The United States

11

Berlin

Germany

12

Oslo

Norway

13

Hong Kong

China

14

Kiev

Ukraine

15

Taipei

Taiwan, China

16

Tallinn

Estonia

17

Sydney

Australia

18

Vilnius

Lithuania

19

Stockholm

Sweden

20

9

Canadian government further released The Canada Cloud Adoption Strategy, hoping to expand online services and save expenses on related applications and infrastructure construction.7 In order to promote the rational use of energy and sustainable development, the local government of Buenos Aires manages urban intelligent lighting systems based on cloud, which further improves the data-collection method and raises prediction and service-delivery abilities while reducing costs.8 Regional cooperation becomes a prominent trend in the construction of EGovernment infrastructure. Regionally, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) launches Asia−Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS) Initiative9 . The Initiative focuses on strengthening the seamless connection of regional broadband optical backbone networks and bridging digital divide among countries in the Asia Pacific Region via intensive and open cross-border infrastructure networks.

7

Data Source: https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/digital-government/digital-govern ment-innovations/cloud-services/government-canada-cloud-adoption-strategy.html. 8 Data Source: http://www.interact-lighting.com/global/customer-stories/buenos-aires. 9 Data Source: https://undocs.org/E/ESCAP/CICTSTI (1)/3.

5.2 The Evaluation and Development of World Digital Government

125

5.2.3 Open Government Data10 Open government data can better meet the needs of the public (especially the vulnerable groups) in public services, improve the efficiency of public services, and enhance the transparency and credibility of the government. Presently, various governments in the world have fully recognized the value and significance of open government data, and actively promoted related work of public-data opening. More countries have set up OGD portals. According to UN EGovernment Survey 2020, since 2014, the number of surveyed countries with OGD portals had leapt from 46 (24%, in 2014) to 153 (80%, in 2020)11 . In more than 50% of surveyed countries, their governmental websites owned the function of open government data (e.g. having data dictionary, accepting the applications for public data, providing guidance, etc.). Around 50% of the surveyed countries organized projects like “Data-Hacker Marathon” to drive the opening and use of government data. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released Open, Useful and Re-usable Data (OURdata) Index: 2019. The report demonstrated that more than 90% of OECD member states legalized formal rules and regulations, stipulating that government data should be freely available in machine-readable format by default.12 Figure 5.1 shows the number of countries with related characteristics of OGD portals in 2018 and 2020. As the basic work for government-data sharing and opening, data standardization and classification possesses great significance in ensuring consistency and compatibility in data sharing and opening. Currently, in some countries and regions, departments or cross-departments establish leading groups responsible for developing national unified data standards. For example, in New Zealand, Statistics New Zealand performs the responsibility for developing data standards and regulatory frameworks.13 Besides, some regions launch data standardization and classification in certain fields and establish strategic partnerships with corporations. For example, the European Union set up the European Multi-Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardization in 2015,14 whose participants included EU member states and EFTA

10

Data Source: World Internet Development Report adopts the definition of government data in UN E-Government Survey 2020, observing that government data denotes a subset of public data “recorded and written in any way on any media… acquired or created in the performance of public duties prescribed by laws or regulations issued on this basis”. 11 Data Source: https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E-Government-Sur vey-2020. 12 Data Source: http://www.oecd.org/governance/digital-government/ourdata-index-policy-paper2020.pdf. 13 Data Source: https://www.stats.govt.nz/about-us/data-leadership. 14 Data Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/multi-stakeholder-platform-ict-sta ndardisation.

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Fig. 5.1 The number of countries with related characteristics of OGD Portals in 2018 and 2020. Data Source UN E-Government Survey 2020

(European Free Trade Association) member states,15 EU and international standardsetting organs, as well as organizations representing small and medium-sized enterprises, consumers and other social sectors. In 2020, the European Union further formulated a rolling plan for ICT standardization and identified 165 action plans in four fields, so as to promote ICT standardization and implement it under relevant laws and policies of the EU.16 Data-exchange platforms serve as a major intermediary to realize data correlation, sharing, using and exchange within governments and among governments, enterprises and the public. Nine OECD member states, e.g. France, Finland, Estonia and Austria, allow users to publish their own data sets, which in turn generates a variety of resources and promotes various forms of innovation.17

5.2.4 Online Governmental Services In recent years, the coverage of online services in various countries continues to expand. The data of UN E-Government Survey 2020 evidences that except South Sudan, all the surveyed countries own national portals and back-end systems. The number of countries and regions that provide at least one online-affair service rose 15

Data Source: EFTA (European Free Trade Association) is an inter-governmental organization of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. 16 Data Source: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/european-standards/ict-standardisation. 17 Data Source: http://www.oecd.org/governance/digital-government/ourdata-index-policy-paper2020.pdf.

5.2 The Evaluation and Development of World Digital Government

127

from 140 in 2018 to 162 in 2020, up 16%. Besides, the penetration rate of online services like application for a driver’s license increased by 100−150%. Table 5.3 shows the construction of telecom infrastructure and the development of human capital in countries with very-high online-service level in 2020. The number of countries that provided mobile-service delivery increased significantly (see Fig. 5.2). In 2020, the number of countries that provided the latest information via short message service (SMS) or mobile apps increased by an average of 38% over 2018, twice the number of countries that provided the latest information via subscriptions. In sharing public information, mobile-subscription updates and apps/ SMS services kept expanding to all fields. The function of national portals also multiplies (see Fig. 5.3). Nearly 90% of the surveyed countries have one-stop services, social-networking platforms and EGovernment portals with feedback-option interactive design. In the functional penetration rate, high-income countries have the highest level (97%), whilst low and middle-income countries have the lowest level (80%). On E-Government portals, less popular functions include advanced search options, tutorials, chat windows and corruption reporting, which are available in only 35% of portals of low-income countries. Additionally, around 140 countries publish online information on procurement and bidding processes, and 125 countries establish relevant online procurement platforms. Noticeably, the penetration rate of e-invoice service has yet to be upgraded. As UN E-Government Survey 2020 suggests, c. 1/3 of countries (67) provide e-invoice services. Among them, 34% of the surveyed countries with high online-service level provide similar services, whereas only 5% of the surveyed countries with medium online-service level provide similar services. Table 5.3 The construction of telecom infrastructure and the development of human capital in Countries with very-high online-service level in 2020 Countries with very-high online-service level Very-High Level Development of Human Capital + Smooth Construction of Telecom Infrastructure

Top-Quality Construction of Telecom Infrastructure + High-Level Development of Human Capital

Albania, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Oman, Peru, Serbia, Thailand, Türkiye

Kuwait, The United China, Dominican Arab Emirates Republic, Republic of Moldova

Smooth Construction of Telecom Infrastructure + High-Level Development of Human Capital

Material Source UN E-Government Survey 2020

High-Level Development of Human Capital + Medium-Level Construction of Telecom Infrastructure India, Uzbekistan

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Fig. 5.2 The proportion of 193 UN member states that provide mobile apps or SMS updates in sharing public information in various fields in 2018 and 2020.18 Data Source UN E-Government Survey 2020

Fig. 5.3 Basic, higher and advanced functions provided by national E-Government portals in line with national income level. Data Source UN E-Government Survey 2020

5.2.5 Digital Integration and Participation According to UN E-Government Survey 2020, various countries in the world play an active role in providing online services for the vulnerable groups. Since 2018, the number of countries that provide online information and services dedicated to 18

Note: Since the “Judicature” index is a newly-added evaluation index in 2020, comparable data in 2018 is unavailable.

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Fig. 5.4 The number of Countries that provide online services for the vulnerable groups in 2016, 2018 and 2020. Data Source UN E-Government Survey 2020

the vulnerable groups has increased by c. 11%, including services for young people (156 countries), women (151 countries), immigrants (148 countries), the elderly (148 countries), the disabled (137 countries) and the poor (130 countries) (see Fig. 5.4). The fastest-growing service is online service for the elderly and immigrants, with an increase of 14%. The faster-growing service is online service for women, with an increase of 11%. However, few countries provide services for the poor and the disabled. Figure 5.4 shows the number of countries that provide online services for the vulnerable groups in 2016, 2018 and 2020. The elderly plays an important role in a community. In Singapore, government launches the “Silver Infocomm Initiative” and develops comprehensive curriculum including learning materials and practical applications, so as to integrate the elderly into digital community and bridge digital divide.19 New York City starts ASL Direct, a video-call system for the disabled, which allows the deaf or people with hearing handicap to communicate with experts proficient in sign language from the Office of the Mayor of NYC for the Disabled by using webcams, giving them direct access to urban services and information.20 In the world, E-Government services that target gender differences progress to varying degree. For example, the City Government of Vienna has implemented more than 60 urban plans that focus on gender differences, hoping to provide safer and more comfortable E-Government services in the fields of work, education, culture and leisure.21

19

Data Source: https://www2.imda.gov.sg/. Data Source: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/mopd/initiatives/asl-direct.page. 21 Data Source: https://www.wien.gv.at/english/administration/gendermainstreaming/examples/. 20

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Global immigrant and refugee crisis is a pressing challenge for many countries and cities, and E-Government plays a prominent role in assisting refugees in accommodation. Hamburg (Germany) launches “Location Search Project” to make the refugees in the city as evenly distributed as possible with a collaborative system, so as to ensure that the needs of residents and refugees can be met in urban planning, construction, real estate development, data analysis, logistics and human dynamics.22 Public participation embodies digital literacy of the public. With the development of E-Government, more citizens obtain the opportunity to participate in governmental decision-making via online platforms. According to The 15th International Digital Government Rankings Report (2020) released by Waseda University, Canada, Denmark, Singapore, the United States and Estonia tie for the first place in “public participation” index. UN E-Government Survey 2020 evaluates the e-participation index in 13 dimensions, e.g. providing online information (related to policies and budgets) in the fields of education, health, social security, employment, environment and justice, providing online public procurement notices and bidding results, and providing online descriptions of e-participation of policies/tasks. Among them, Estonia, South Korea, the United States and Japan tie for the first place with full scores, which signifies that these countries and regions have all the characteristics of e-participation. Japan and New Zealand both rank the 4th in score, and Austria, Singapore and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland rank the 6th in score. Presently, e-participation mechanism can be basically divided into various forms, such as public feedback and appeal, consultation, citizen initiatives and petitions, Idea Forum and participatory budget. South Korea’s participatory budget platform integrates the budget drafts of the central government and local governments. Citizens can not only participate in the screening, sequencing and discussion of drafts, but also put forward their own proposals.23 Estonian citizens can write and discuss proposals and write and send digitally-signed group speeches to the parliament on rahvaalgatus.ee, a citizens’ initiative portal. Bogota, capital of Colombia, makes full use of e-participation to launch anti-corruption activities. Citizens in Bogota can report possible corruption and inquire about the dynamics of relevant complaints anonymously via Bogotá te escucha (Bogota Listens to Your Voice) Platform.24

5.2.6 Data Security and Privacy Data security and privacy plays a vital role in the strategy of digital transformation. With advances in information technology like big data and AI, privacy protection

22

Data Source: E. Al Nuaimi and others, “Applications of big data to smart cities”, Journal of Internet Services. 23 Data Source: https://www.mybudget.go.kr/systemIntrcn/systemIntrcnMain. 24 Data Source: Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá, Servicio a la Ciudadanía. https://bogota.gov.co/sdqs/.

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becomes increasingly important. In Network Readiness Index 2020, 25% of countries perform well in the dimensions of trust and security, which demonstrates that trust and security are important distinguishing dimensions.25 Legislation functions as an important means to protect network data and privacy. Countries all strengthen legislation to protect data security and privacy. For example, in May 2018, the European Union promulgated and effectuated General Data Protection Regulation. In June 2018, the State of California of the United States released California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), known as the “the most rigid and comprehensive personal privacy protection act” in the United States. CCPA came into effect on January 1, 2020. In 2015, Japan substantially revised the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) promulgated in 2005, and in June 2020, Japan formulated the Amendments to the APPI to further strengthen the protection of personal data and clarify the obligations of enterprises and non-profit organizations that collect and process personal information.26 Now, in a large number of countries, citizens and enterprises cannot instantly obtain all the personal information about them that governments have acquired on governmental portals, or cannot decide who should be allowed to view the information and how to use it. As UN E-Government Survey 2020 indicates, among the regions that allow individuals to access their own data recorded by governments, European countries take up the highest percentage (81.4%) and African countries take up the lowest percentage (only 24.1%). In the report released by Waseda University, South Korea adopted laws and regulations like the Personal Information Protection Act to protect data security and scored full marks in relevant indexes. Figures 5.5 and 5.6 show the percentages of countries that allow individuals and enterprises to access or obtain data from their governmental records, respectively.

5.3 Innovative Practice of Digital Government in the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic With the wide application of big data, blockchain, AI and other technologies, the practice of digital government continues to be innovated, the construction of national-level integrated-information-service platforms continues to be strengthened, the functions of local E-Government services continue to be improved, and mobile-terminal-based interactive application services continue to be expanded. In 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic meant a heavy blow to traditional governance models and raised higher requirements for remote services provided by digital government. On the one hand, the requirements for the prevention and control of the pandemic, such as large-scale screening and social-distance monitoring, rest on the application of digital 25

Data Source: https://networkreadinessindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/NRI-2020-V8_ 28-11-2020.pdf. 26 Data Source: https://fpf.org/blog/a-new-era-for-japanese-data-protection-2020-amendments-tothe-appi/.

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Fig. 5.5 The percentage of Countries that allow individuals to access data from their governmental records. Data Source UN E-Government Survey 2020

Fig. 5.6 The percentage of Countries that allow enterprises to access data from their governmental records. Data Source UN E-Government Survey 2020

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and intelligent means. On the other hand, digital services can improve service efficiency and effectively reduce crowd aggregation and contact. To combat the COVID19 pandemic, various countries continuously experiment new methods and measures in relation to digital services, and further deepen the innovative practice of digital government. Section 5.3 summarizes new trends of innovative digital government in various countries in recent years, and analyzes new update and upgrading of original technologies and practices in the combat against the pandemic, so as to represent the innovative practice of digital government in a systematic and comprehensive way.

5.3.1 From Integrated Platform Information Disclosure to Multi-platform Information Sharing To voluntarily share information and government data with the public via the portal platform proves conducive to establishing effective, responsible and inclusive government institutions, promoting the convenience of service management, improving the transparency of public sectors, and strengthening the construction of accountability. As UN E-Government Survey 2020 suggests, in 2020, 80%-90% of UN member states provided the public with policies and project information on specific industries. Besides, many countries and regions often disclose governmental expenditures and budgets to the public. Singapore provides a one-stop governmental portal (Gov.sg), via which citizens can access other special websites concerning services for e-participation, e-service, open data and public procurement. Australian Central E-Government Portal is a collection of more than 900 Australian governmental websites. Government.se, Swedish official national portal, which is connected with portal services hosted by other ministries and commissions of Sweden, provides a wide range of data sets and information through OGD (open government data) portals to ensure the accessibility of public service data and the transparency of information. Government-data-service portal in Shanghai (China) is one of the most successful local projects that provide one-stop public services. In the combat against the pandemic, the demand for accurate, practical and timely information provided by governments soared, and information sharing reached an unprecedented level. In the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and citizens in various countries were tied by using digital technologies and sharing information or providing online services. On the one hand, citizens could use digital technologies to obtain “action permits” through SMS, online apps or platforms to help governments implement quarantine and other prevention and control measures. Simultaneously, governments in various countries could use digital technologies to make prompt decisions on the basis of real-time data and related analytical results, improve national-local coordinated capabilities, and better coordinate and deploy health resources. UN E-Government Survey 2020 investigated the official websites of 193 UN member states, indicating that by March 2020, only 57% (110 countries) had released incomplete information on the COVID-19 pandemic; by April 2020,

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around 86% (167 countries) had provided related information on the COVID-19 pandemic; by May 2020, c. 97.5% (188 countries) had released information on the COVID-19 pandemic on their official websites. In the COVID-19 pandemic, various countries took more measures in information sharing in addition to traditional information publicity, which could be roughly categorized into three types, i.e. providing information, monitoring and establishing special COVID-19-pandemic portal platforms. For example, in the pandemic, the demand for medical supplies and resources increased significantly, which required digital government to display better coordination and more transparency. In Brazil and Kyrgyzstan, local governments provided real-time information on resource shortages to central governments via websites. Turkish government provided masks to citizens for free by its E-Government portal. In Croatia, “Andrija”, a digital assistant, used AI to process thousands of health requests through governmental portals and social media.

5.3.2 From Basic Services of Mobile Applications to Data Monitoring Based on User’s Willingness As UN E-Government Survey 2020 evinces, almost all urban portals can be accessed via mobile devices. This confirms that governments attach importance to multichannel services or functions provided by mobile technologies, yet most of them only have basic services or functions like information publishing. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads rapidly in the world, local prevention and control of the pandemic calls for more efforts in various countries. Digital technology that can be employed to develop contact-tracking apps enables governmental health authorities and citizens to understand the infected cases and track the contacts of infected people to detect the virus. As citizens’ personal belongings, mobile devices were endowed with new important functions in the pandemic, e.g. positioning, contact locking, social-distance monitoring, etc. In the pandemic, apps that many countries and regions under lockdown originally used aimed to obtain licenses to restrict unnecessary activities of individuals. For example, in Malaysia, the QR code generated by Gerak Malaysia (a mobile app) can be used as a digital license for inter-state travel and other types of travel. Brazil’s “Contact Tracking Program” used AI algorithm for online consultation, artificial voice for screening, and chat-robot app to help citizens remotely evaluate whether they belonged to the risky group, and then screened suspected cases for the COVID19. In view of the sensitivity of private data, most apps developed in European countries allow users to voluntarily participate, agreeing to share their contact data and geographic location information in line with General Data Protection Regulation. For example, “StopCorona”, an Austrian app, allows anonymous digital “handshakes” (active storage of contacts) between mobile phones. If users are infected, anonymous

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warnings will be sent to whoever they have contacted. In Estonia, “StopCorona” per se is grounded in vehicular radio on a given device, transmitting anonymous IDs via short-range Bluetooth and analyzing the IDs that the individuals contacted in the past 14 days. Many countries and regions, e.g. Armenia and Ukraine, have passed laws to allow mobile operators to share geographical-location information of COVID-19 patients with the authorities to monitor whether the patients obey self-isolation and send nucleic-acid-testing requests to their contacts.

5.3.3 From Technological Plug-Ins to Multi-scene Applications of Smart Tools With the application of emerging technologies, especially AI technology, the efficiency of traditional public services continues to improve. As early as 2017, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) introduced Rammas,27 an online chat robot that could communicate with customers. Rammas can answer users’ questions in Arabic and English. DEWA also boasts the first governmental agency in Dubai to use AI to interact with customers in a direct and real-time way. In the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to reduce the infection risk among publicservice personnel and narrow the gap in artificial services, providing “contactless” services became a general trend. Governments of various countries further applied emerging technologies in the work of the prevention and control of the pandemic, electronic diagnosis and so on, to continuously raise service efficiency. To ensure safe social distance, many governments used robots, unmanned aerial vehicles, selfservice temperature scanners, non-contact infrared thermometers and other apps to monitor social distance. Qatari government deployed Al-Asas security robot, which could patrol residential and public areas to propagate the importance of preventing assemblies and limiting the spread of the virus among communities. Singaporean government developed aluminum-powered thermal scanner “SPOTON”, established a large-scale temperature screening system, used Long Wavelength Infrared (LWIR) camera modules integrated with RGB cameras, and gradually deployed them to governmental buildings and community facilities. Additionally, Singapore deployed a new automatic temperature-screening platform to optimize the existent thermal system and improve the speed of non-contact scanning, which saved time and manpower. Indonesia introduced ITS-Airlangga (RASA), a robot medical assistant, to minify the contact between medical staff and COVID-19 patients as well as the consumption of personal protective equipment (PPE). ITS-Airlangga could transport drugs, patient’s clothes and food and other items that weighed 50 kg to the ward, and use multimedia to monitor two-way communication between medical staff and patients. 27

Data Source: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority website (https://www.dewa.gov.ae/en/aboutus/dewa-digital-journey/rammas); the Rammas chatbot is available at. https://www.dewa.gov.ae/en/ rammas.

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Many countries reduced the risk of infection that resulted from personal contact by encouraging people to purchase digitally. For example, Kuwait started a food purchase and reservation system to regulate the food purchase of cooperatives. Kyrgyzstan designed a special website for citizens in need of food aid, by which citizens could apply for food aid remotely and ask for it to be sent home. In Portugal, Citizen Map, a site app, provides useful geographical information for public services and allows users to obtain digital queue tickets for on-site public services. Fijian government implemented real-time digital monitoring and timely processed the data of the COVID-19 pandemic for early detection, e.g. establishing health care facilities and laboratories in the peripheral areas. Iran developed a portal mobile app for users who wanted to conduct electronic self-evaluation. Risks were evaluated by assigning color codes: black status (90% chance of infection), red status (physical examination needed), yellow status (home care and self-isolation needed), pink status (groups with underlying diseases) and green status (low risk). Iranian government used the information to locate and disinfect high-risk groups in cities, furnish them with immediate care, transfer infected people to hospitals, provide home-care services, and receive complaints about public services. Meanwhile, limited by the quantity of medical staff and the quality of treatment in hospitals, many governments developed various portals, chat robots and apps to provide citizens with tools that could automatically evaluate citizens’ health status and to enable doctors to remotely monitor the health status of patients. In a way, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the governmental deployment of innovative emedical solutions, including e-health service, the supply of medical supplies, virtual doctor, self-evaluation of health status and remote patient monitoring. For example, FluGoWhere, a Singaporean platform, could search out public clinics that provided special subsidies for those diagnosed with respiratory diseases. In the United Arab Emirates, people could use “iMAP Health Facility Locator” app to locate newlylaunched COVID-19 screening centers.

5.4 New Trends in the Construction of Digital Government After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, isolation and quarantine restrict the normal operation of many socioeconomic activities, and E-Government faces a stress-tolerance test. On condition that face-to-face interaction becomes inconvenient and impossible, digital-government solutions prove more important. Various countries continue to build effective multi-functional E-Government systems to provide the public, local authorities and medical workers with clear and latest information. Simultaneously, various countries cooperate with platform providers and other stakeholders and make outstanding contributions to the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. In brief, the construction of digital government presents a series of new trends.

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5.4.1 Regional Cooperation Further Deepens Regional cooperation serves as a robust support throughout the construction of digital government in various regions. In Europe, since 2016, all governments in Northern Europe have promoted the cooperation in Smart Government and highlighted cross-border projects, data flow and commercial-data exchanges. Carried out from 2021 to 2027, “Digital Europe Programme” becomes the “first funded programme dedicated to supporting digital transformation” in the European Union. In 2013, Transform Africa Summit proposed “Smart Africa Initiative”,28 which was committed to building generally affordable ICT infrastructure and services for African countries, such as broadband connectivity. In the meantime, Transform Africa Summit adopted “Policy and Regulation Initiative for Digital Africa” (PRIDA). As a guarantee of Digital Africa, PRIDA included African Union, the European Union and International Telecommunication Union. In Latin America, Network of E-Government Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean (RED GEALC) was established in 2003, which gathered major participants in the development of E-Government in Latin America and promoted the horizontal cooperation and professional-knowledge exchanges among countries in Latin America. In 2018, at RED GEALC Annual Meeting, 16 Latin American countries and six Caribbean countries jointly signed Declaration of Panama to further advance E-Government cooperation among relevant public officials in the region. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 touches off a crisis in medical care and health. More importantly, it causes regional and global socioeconomic crisis that calls for collaborative response. Under such circumstances, regional cooperation in E-Government further deepens, and initiatives related to regional digital cooperation emerge in the fields of data connectivity, data governance, e-learning, technological resilience and digital public-service delivery.29 The Organization of American States (OAS) develops a Virtual Platform of Emergency and Security Systems (ESS) to help regions and countries operate ESS. The United Nations Regional Economic and Social Commission, the European Union, Inter-American Development Bank and other multi-level regional cooperation entities play an active role in the course to further support the development and cooperation of E-Government among the member states of regional organizations.

5.4.2 Local Governments Become E-Government Entities that Play a More Active Role In the past, the development of E-Government mainly targeted the transformation of digital government at the national level. As UN E-Government Survey 2020 unveils, 28

Data Source: http://smartafrica.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/smart_africa_manifesto_ 2013_-_english_version.pdf. 29 Data Source: UN E-Government Survey 2020.

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the development of local E-Government in various countries remains at a low level, and most urban portals only provide basic functions like information sharing, with inadequate information services. In recent years, local E-Government displays a trend of vigorous development. For example, municipal government of Casablanca, Morocco, launched a new-version portal to provide citizens with more dynamic digital content. It also developed a municipal portal called “Casa Store”30 to energetically promote users’ participation in providing specific types of information and services. Local governments of various countries actively build “smart cities”, and use advanced technologies to promote sustainable development and help government realize digital transformation. For example, AI technology is used to improve service delivery and simplify internal labor management, big data and analytical technology are utilized to make efficient decisions and optimize urban public resources, and IoT is used to support intelligent applications in medical care, transportation, law enforcement and emergency. Besides, local governments of various countries adopt new digital applications to settle refugees, alleviate traffic congestion, treat solid waste and reduce air pollution. In the COVID-19 pandemic, urban and municipal management departments interact with citizens in a more direct way and take responsibility for solving problems that affect citizen’s daily life. As E-Government entities, local governments embody prominent flexibility and vitality. Many cities utilize the infrastructure of original smart cities to flexibly cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, London measures the distance between pedestrians by means of cameras, sensors and AI algorithms commonly used to control traffic, and monitors whether citizens keep social distance. Many cities in China introduce Health QR Code service. After verifying declared personal information, local governments issue QR Code electronic certificates with different colors to evaluate personal health status, and restrict or permit citizens’ travel in public areas in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

5.4.3 “Personal Information Protection” Becomes a New Domain that Plays an Increasingly Important Role In the era of big data, personal information protection forms an integral part of citizens’ rights and interests. Various countries standardize network-data security, data transaction, information protection and other fields by legislative means. In May 2020, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) of Singapore jointly released the draft of Personal Data Protection Act (Revised), which proposed to hold accountable for the improper handling of personal data kept by individuals, organizations or public institutions. The cases included knowingly or deliberately disclosing other’s data without authorization, knowingly or deliberately using others’ data for profit or infringing others’ 30

Data Source: Ville de Casablanca (http://www.casastore.ma).

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interests, and knowingly or deliberately identifying individual identity again from anonymous data without authorization. The legal framework of E-Government in South Korea places emphasis on the protection of personal data and information, digital security and digital identity. In 2017, South Korea published Digital Signature Act. The legal framework of E-Government in Japan focuses on personal digital security and access to digital data. Relevant laws include Act on the Protection of Personal Information, Act on Electronic Signatures and Certification Business, Act on Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs and Act on Access to Information Held by Juridical Persons and Administrative Organs. In 2017, the United Kingdom launched Government Transformation Strategy 2017 to 2020 that centered on citizens, so as to ensure that all British citizens could access E-Government services with personalized digital identity. The United Kingdom also adopted The Data Protection Act 2018. The legal system of personal information protection in China continuously improves. The promulgation and implementation of The Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China and the deliberation and approval of The Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China provide powerful legal support for personal information protection. In various countries, management and policy-related priorities in digital transformation differ. As UN E-Government Survey 2020 affirms, among 47 surveyed Asian countries, 87% have enacted laws concerning electronic transactions, 79% have enacted regulations concerning combating cybercrimes, yet only 57% have enacted privacy laws. Generally speaking, in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital government played a prominent role in “response and prevention and control”. Governments shared information accurately and timely through online portals, social media and other platforms, and promoted e-participation and guided two-way communication between people through online inquiry. In the future, “recovery” and “reshaping” will become new themes, and governments should further establish effective multistakeholder partnership at regional, national and local levels. Governments need to provide technological education for the vulnerable groups in society, improve their information literacy and bridge digital divide. Besides, governments need to investigate the legislation on data and privacy protection, sum up experiences and lessons, and provide more financial and technological support to local governments in digitalization, so that local governments can enjoy more service benefits from digitalization.

Chapter 6

World Internet Media Development

6.1 Outline After 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic that engulfed the entire world continues to affect the development of human society. The COVID-19 pandemic signals a significant turn for human history. Against such a backdrop, a series of far-reaching changes have taken place in the field of global Internet. With regard to Internet media, public opinion produces countless hot topics. In particular, hot topics like the “Centenary of the Communist Party of China”, “carbon neutrality” and “China example of poverty alleviation and governance” attract global attention in Internet. Internet media technology continues to evolve iteratively. New digital-media forms like audio social networking and online conferences boost the development of global cloud interconnectivity. Globally, the regulation on Internet media has tightened up, with increasing attention to emerging issues in the era of intelligent communication like algorithmic discrimination. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the remarkable decline of the traditional film and television industry forms a sharp contrast to the rapid growth of streaming media, which necessitates the transformation of film and television industry into streaming media. These new trends have an impact on global Internet culture, ecology and technology and function as a factor that we need to take into account in probing into world Internet media development in 2021.

6.2 The Development Landscape of World Internet Media The COVID-19 pandemic means a “cold winter” for traditional manufacturing and service industries. Nevertheless, the advent of 2021 saw the rarely-seen againstheadwinds growth of global Internet media industry owing to the advantage of cloud connection. On the one hand, traditional Internet corporations like Facebook, Google and Amazon promptly seized the opportunity to enlarge their online market share © Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, World Internet Development Report 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7_6

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and achieved against-headwinds growth. On the other hand, emerging digital media like TikTok and Zoom made crises into advantages and turned the tide in mature markets by various means.

6.2.1 Traditional Social Media Platforms As Pew Research Center reports, Facebook serves as main public space for American users to discuss topics in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.1 36% of Americans regularly view news on Facebook, with the numbers of Americans who view news on YouTube (23%) and Twitter (15%) ranking the 2nd and 3rd respectively.2 By the end of 2020, the number of Facebook users in the world had totaled 1.9 billion, with an increase of 8.7% year on year. New users from the-third-world countries presented the most eye-catching performance in 2020, with enormous growth potential. Facebook users in the Middle East and Africa and the Asia–Pacific Region increased by 13.6% and 10.7% respectively. India boasted the largest number of Facebook users in the world, and Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa saw the fastest growth rate of Facebook users. Meanwhile, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic curbed the downward trend in the number of Facebook users in North America, Western Europe and other regions. By the end of 2020, the number of countries with net loss of Facebook users had decreased from 9 in 2019 to 4.3 The growth in the number of users synchronously spurred a substantial rise in Facebook’s annual revenue, which reached 86 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2020, up c. 21.6% on a year-on-year basis.4 By dint of the strong market demand for online advertising and the excellent performance of Google’s cloud business in 2020, Alphabet, a parent company of Google, realized robust growth in business. In the first quarter of 2020, Alphabet achieved a year-on-year growth of 34% in business revenue, which reached 55.31 billion U.S. dollars, with an over-100% increase in net profit.5 The YouTube platform, a subordinate of Alphabet, generated an advertising revenue of 6 billion U.S. dollars, up 49% on a year-on-year basis. In the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s demand for teleworking and online shopping contributed to the growth in Amazon’s sales by leaps and bounds. In the first quarter of 2021, Amazon’s sales rose by 44% year on year and reached 108.5 billion 1

Data Source: Pew Research Center, https://www.journalism.org/2020/06/24/posts-about-covid19-appeared-in-a-wide-range-of-public-facebook-spaces/. 2 Data Source: Pew Research Center, https://www.journalism.org/2021/01/12/news-use-across-soc ial-media-platforms-in-2020/. 3 Data Source: Emarketer’s research report, https://www.emarketer.com/content/global-facebookusers-2020. 4 Data Source: Statista (A statistical website), https://www.statista.com/statistics/268604/annualrevenue-of-facebook/. 5 Data Source: A report from The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/27/bus iness/stock-market-today.

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U.S. dollars. With fully-developed digital-integration platforms and excellent supplychain management capability, Amazon immediately responded to users’ needs in the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, Amazon took the initiative in developing Amazon Web Services for network storage business to consolidate its competitiveness in cloud computing business. In 2020, the business revenue of AWS account for 30% of Amazon’s total revenue, making an outstanding contribution to its annual business development.6

6.2.2 Emerging Digital Media Platforms As one of the most popular short-video social-media apps in the world, TikTok has been widely used in recent years (2019–2021), which has weakened the long-standing dominance of Facebook in the field of social media in downloads.7 In the first quarter of 2021, TikTok ranked the 1st in The List of Global App Downloads, maintaining the momentum of sustainable growth in downloads in 2020. In the United States, in spite of the fact that 62% of TikTok’s users are aged 10–29, the growth rate of its users over 30 years old keep increasing.8 TikTok has not only altered the way in which young people entertain themselves, but also provided a platform for racial groups at various ages and from various classes to express and speak.9 Particularly, in June 2021, U.S. President Biden announced to rescind the ban on TikTok during the Trump administration, which mitigated the pressure on TikTok’s sustainability in the U.S. market. The COVID-19 pandemic touches off more demand for online connections. In 2020, Zoom achieved an explosive growth in an unprecedented way, whose sales soared to 2.6 billion U.S. dollars (up 326%) and profit jumped from 27.1 million U.S. dollars to 671.5 million U.S. dollars over 2019.10

6.3 Hot Topics in World Internet Media In 2021, hot topics in world Internet media featured diversified development. Specifically, there were two hot fields. On the one hand, hot topics centered on China’s contribution to environmental protection and global poverty alleviation, the grand celebration of the “Centenary of the Communist Party of China” as well as “carbon 6

Data Source: A report from Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelleykohan/2021/02/02/ama zons-net-profit-soars-84-with-sales-hitting-386-billion/?sh=30b07a5f1334. 7 Data Source: Business of Apps, https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tik-tok-statistics/. 8 Data Source: Oberlo Website, https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics. 9 Data Source: A report from The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/style/tik tok-trends-2020.html. 10 Data Source: A report from BBC, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56247489.

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neutrality” and “targeted poverty alleviation” proposed by Chinese government, which kindled positive reaction and heated discussion among global public opinion. On the other hand, the discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic turned to the trend of “vaccine nationalism”. Global public health security systems remained unstable and formed new media crisis mingled with extremist nationalism.

6.3.1 The “Centenary of the Communist Party of China” Arouses Media Attention Worldwide On July 1, 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered an important speech at the celebration ceremony of the “Centenary of the Communist Party of China”. The significant topic received wide attention and evoked extensive discussion among Internet media and social media around the world. Overseas Internet media were highly attentive to the thriving scenes as displayed at the celebration ceremony of the “Centenary of the Communist Party of China”. The Guardian released a special report with large-scale photos on its official website and represented the solemn occasion of the celebration in a multi-dimensional way, stating that: “Since its birth in Shanghai in 1921, the Communist Party of China has become one of the most powerful political parties in the world.” CNN (Cable News Network) of the United States particularized major events in one hundred years since the founding of the Communist Party of China in the topic form with a multimedia approach, and highlighted the on-site scenes of “July 1 Theatrical Performance”. In an article entitled “In Beijing, Pride and Hopes for a Stronger China on Party Centenary”, Reuters held the view that ordinary Chinese people generally expressed their pride in China’s rapid development and good wishes for the future when interviewed, which proved the support and recognition of Chinese people for the leadership of the Communist Party of China. In Internet, international public opinion paid close attention to the celebration ceremony of the “Centenary of the Communist Party of China”. International media fully acknowledged great achievements of the Communist Party of China in leading the Chinese nation to realize national independence and building a new China, and foregrounded the irreplaceable role of the Communist Party of China in the development course of modern China, which demonstrated the important role of the Communist Party of China in the world.

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6.3.2 “Carbon Neutrality” Becomes a Central Issue in World Internet Media At the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly that was convened in September 2020, China make the commitments of “Emission Peak” and “Carbon Neutrality”, which attracted widespread attention from global news media and environmental protection organizations. Chinese government promised that before 2030, China’s carbon dioxide emissions would peak, and before 2060, China would achieve zero emissions by means of afforestation and energy conservation and emission reduction, which could offset carbon dioxide emissions made in one sector by reducing them somewhere else. As overseas media observe, the idea of “Carbon Neutrality” will accelerate China’s transformation of the economic development mode to high-quality development. The New York Times of the United States considers that China’s declaration has close ties with China’s policy-related documents like National 14th Five-Year Plan.11 In BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) news, it is stated that China’s solemn promise of “Carbon Neutrality” has a positive effect on mitigating the climate crisis. Forbes, an American business magazine, notes that China’s vision and action of “Carbon Neutrality” enables it to achieve an economic growth by over 15% by 2030, to ensure an utilization rate of clean energy of 62% and to reduce energy consumption and expenditure by 11%,12 which ultimately actualizes technological progress related to energy “development, utilization and reproduction” and the construction of an environment-friendly society. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) also writes an article, suggesting that China’s goal of “Carbon Neutrality” will limit the rise of global temperature by less than 1.5°C, which not only helps to realize China’s sustainable development, but also plays a leading role in demonstrating and promoting the rise of global governance effects.13

6.3.3 “China Example of Poverty Alleviation and Governance” Evokes Worldwide Concern in the Public Opinion on the Internet In 2021, China attained a complete victory in the fight against poverty. The final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line were lifted out of poverty. All the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages were 11

Data Source: A news report from The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/ world/asia/china-climate-change.html. 12 Data Source: The website of Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2021/03/ 08/chinas-carbon-neutral-opportunity-economic-growth-driven-by-ambitious-climate-action/?sh= 300c9002734d. 13 Data Source: The website of BCG, https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/how-china-can-ach ieve-carbon-neutrality-by-2060.

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removed from the poverty list. The feat forges “China Example of Poverty Alleviation and Governance” and makes a significant contribution to the cause of global poverty alleviation. On the one hand, China’s poverty alleviation is part of “the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030”. On the other hand, China provides new solutions and new wisdom to poverty alleviation and social governance in other countries and regions, especially the “Global South”. “China Example of Poverty Alleviation and Governance” has received positive feedback from overseas Internet media and think tanks. Global Internet media mainly spotlight how China’s poverty alleviation plays an exemplary role. Anadolu Agency of Türkiye remarks in an article that since 2012, China has been committed to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects in the new era, which removes economically-difficult population and poor areas from the poverty list. Practically, China’s poverty alleviation demonstrates that “China embarks on the right path”. Some leaders of developing countries also view China’s poverty alleviation as an example to advance poverty alleviation worldwide. Imran Khan, Pakistani Prime Minister, tweeted that he regards China as a model to combat poverty.14 With regard to the mode of China’s poverty alleviation, Reuters stresses the cooperative relationship between Chinese Internet-platform corporations and Chinese government on poverty alleviation and governance. For example, Internet corporations like Tencent play an important part in China’s poverty alleviation. Tencent releases an investment-donation program with a total amount of 50 billion yuan, which involves rural-revitalization projects and regional infrastructure construction in China.15 Large Internet-platform corporations possess momentous economic value in poverty alleviation and governance, which serve as a reference and model to the transformation toward digital economy and the conversion of corporate social benefits in other developing countries. China’s poverty alleviation triggers extensive discussion on global Internet media and attracts the attention of Western intellectuals and political elites. Brookings Institution, an American think tank, points out that China attains a complete victory in poverty alleviation, which means a change that combines the mobilization of social resources with the pursuit of actual effects. Besides, “China Miracle” wins deep credibility among international community. China’s poverty alleviation addresses basic problems of food and clothing supplies and provides basic medical, housing and educational security for Chinese people.16 China’s poverty alleviation produces positive comments on Internet media via practical actions and achievements. On the one hand, China’s “targeted poverty alleviation” makes remarkable achievements, which is widely recognized by international 14

Data Source: Anadolu Agency, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/on-poverty-alleviationchina-is-on-the-right-track/2066729. 15 Data Source: Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/tencent-pledges77-bln-support-china-poverty-environment-initiatives-2021-04-19/. 16 Data Source: Brookings Institution, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2021/ 01/25/deep-sixing-poverty-in-china/.

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community. On the other hand, China’s “targeted poverty alleviation” provides a “Chinese model” for poverty alleviation in developing countries around the world, which can draw on the experience of China.

6.3.4 The Conflict that Arises from “Vaccine Nationalism” Becomes Prominent In 2021, the core issue of the COVID-19 pandemic shifted from “cooperation against the COVID-19” to “vaccine distribution”. A few Western countries fell into the trap of “vaccine nationalism”, which remained in stark contrast to China’s extensive assistance to developing countries on the vaccine issue and caused heated discussion and debate among global Internet media. Several international organizations published articles at social media like Facebook and Twitter, revealing that “vaccine nationalism” signified that some Western developed countries refused to export the COVID-19 vaccine stocks because they provided them for domestic citizens by signing contracts with pharmaceutical companies. This “self-prioritization” stance resulted in the fact that the total number of the COVID-19 vaccines reached 4.2 billion doses in high-income countries whilst the number of the COVID-19 vaccines only reached 670 million doses in some low-income countries. In addition to health risks and public health safety, the shortsighted policy of “vaccine nationalism” exacerbated the global gap between the rich and the poor. The World Bank asserted that the inconvenience of vaccination would make life harder for more than 150 million poor population (with a daily income of less than 1.9 U.S. dollars), and the global problem of extreme poverty would come to rise for the first time in nearly 20 years.17 As the data of Our World in Data suggest, the vaccination rates in various countries and regions in the world were thrown out of balance.18 By June 2021, the vaccination rate (per 100 people) in Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom had all exceeded 80%, yet a large number of developing countries could hardly obtain enough COVID-19 vaccines. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stated on Twitter that 75% of the vaccination worldwide was carried out in ten major countries. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, called on all countries in the world to unite, because only by achieving “vaccination equality” shall we withstand and overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s assistance to other countries with the COVID-19 vaccines aroused heated discussions among various Internet media.

17

Data Source: Global Citizen, https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/what-is-vaccine-nation alism/?utm_source=paidsearch&utm_medium=usgrant&utm_campaign=verizon&gclid=EAIaIQ obChMI8JCMk-ak8AIVMG5vBB2SkQD9EAAYASAAEgLxmPD_BwE. 18 Data Source: Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations.

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Agencia EFE of Spain reported that by 2022, China’s exports of the COVID-19 vaccines would probably cover 40% countries and regions in the world.19 France 24, a French TV station, also believed that China’s export assistance to Brazil, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye and other countries evidenced that China’s sense of responsibility for actively participating in international affairs effectively enhanced its national soft power, in contrast to Western countries that vied for the COVID-19 vaccines and cornered the market on the pretext of “nationalism”.20

6.4 The Governance and Regulation of World Internet Media Over the past year, various countries in the world have tightened up on the governance of antitrust related to Internet corporations. As Internet corporations like Facebook, Google and Amazon have a greater impact on Internet economy, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and France launch the antitrust and regulation campaign against Internet media to varying degrees, which target social media’s monopoly and exclusive market position, social media’s jockeying for traffic with traditional journalism and social media’s algorithmic discrimination and biased information push.

6.4.1 The Antitrust Regulation on Social Media is Upgraded In the past two years, digital economy boomed owing to the outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic, which enhanced the monopolistic position of Internet corporations and accelerated governmental antitrust regulation. In October 2020, the antitrust report released by the Democratic Party of the U.S. House of Representatives indicated that Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook all possessed monopolistic power.21 In the same month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google. In the beginning of 2021, Facebook also encountered the biggest regulatory challenge since its founding, involved in double-litigation with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the attorneys-general of 48 states and regions in the United States. FTC insisted that Facebook’s acquisitions of two corporations (i.e. Instagram and WhatsApp) in 2012 and 2014 accorded with its “systematic strategy” that aimed to maintain its monopoly in the field of mobile social media, requiring Facebook to split these two platforms into independent corporations. In the 50-year history of 19

Data Source: Agencia EFE, https://www.efe.com/efe/english/portada/china-speeds-up-vaccineproduction-for-export-to-developing-countries/50000260-4472141. 20 Data Source: France 24, https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20210130-covid-19-as-thewest-competes-for-vaccines-china-exports-jabs-and-expands-soft-power. 21 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/technology/congress-big-tech-monopoly-power.html.

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American business, such a large-scale antitrust lawsuit was rarely seen, except the Antitrust Lawsuit of Microsoft and the Split and Reconstructing of AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) in the late 1990s, two cases that stood comparison with the Facebook case. New proposals of the European Union and the United States clarify that antitrust regulations ought to be updated and adapted to the digital era so as to keep pace with new market trends. In October 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives Antitrust Subcommittee released Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets. The report disclosed the exclusive monopoly problem of four corporations (i.e. Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon) and proposed countermeasures on how to effectively implement antitrust against social media in the future. In December 2020, the European Commission launched the drafts of Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, which aimed to improve data-security protection and enhance consumers’ sense of experience, e.g. supporting data portability, restricting cross products and bundle products, and limiting the locking of default applications.22 Traditional antitrust cases concentrate on the fact that the lack of competition impairs the interests of consumers in pricing. In the digital era, antitrust laws and regulations take into account the harm to personal information and privacy done by shared users and bundled products, in addition to traditional monopoly on prices or options. In the early stage, Facebook and other platforms occupied a favorable position in mobile social media market via mature market integration. Yet, whether they had control over certain markets or not is a key factor to judge the nature of monopoly.

6.4.2 The Scramble for Traffic Between Social-Media Platforms and Traditional Journalism Intensifies Given the reality of the platform-based turn, the era of digital news has profoundly reshaped old news-production process and production-marketing logic in mass media. Besides, the original closed loop of “interview-writing-editing-comment” as well as “production-consumption” has been fundamentally altered. Media pursue the deep integration and flow benefit that include capital, technology and other elements, which results in the Prosumer economic model in news based on digital platforms typified by social media and We Media. In the Prosumer model, platform-based media start to nibble at the audience traffic and advertising revenue of traditional journalism, which intensifies the scramble for traffic between social-media platforms and traditional journalism. In recent years, various countries started to restrict social media like Facebook from forwarding the content produced by traditional media for free. In February 2021, Australia issued News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, 22

Data Source: eMarketer, https://content-na1.emarketer.com/2021-predictions-3-efforts-worldw ide-will-reimagine-form-antitrust-legislation-takes-digital-age.

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which clearly prohibited social media like Facebook from forwarding traditional media news without permission, and further aggravated the competition between social media and traditional journalism for network traffic and advertising revenue in the era of digital journalism. Facebook protested against the interference in Facebook and its business partnerships that arose from the Code’s “unilateral coercion” and the possible negative impact that came from “non-news content”.23 Google also struck back in the form of “twelve consecutive questions” on its official blog website, including Google News Showcase’s “involuntary payment” in Australia, and the Code’s doing harm to “Google search” as well as the spirit of the Internet advertised by Google.24 It was noteworthy that Google was once in dispute with publishers in EU member states in terms of traffic payment. In 2014, prior to Spain’s New Copyright Law, Google chose to exclude all Spanish publishers from “Google News” and shut down “Google News” service in Spain until the beginning of 2021 when negotiation started. The U.S. Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) observes that different digital platforms will take different actions in response to news-charge regulations in the same region, which therefore strengthens the competition between platforms for traffic and advertising revenue. For example, Microsoft bluntly says that unlike Google, it will support the latest Australian Code, which directly relates to the size of their users in Australia. Microsoft’s Bing search engine accounts for only 3.6% of the Australian market, while Google has 94.5% of Australian users.25 American Broadcasting Company (ABC) notices that owing to Matthew Effect, some large local media outlets may make profits, yet small press and publishing institutions will totally lag behind. As current regulations can be carried out in a very flexible way, large digital platforms like Google will retain the rights to screen or even block local and regional news.26 Predictably, the scramble for traffic and advertising revenue between social media and traditional news media will continue to heat up in various countries and regions.

6.4.3 The Legal Regulation Against Algorithmic Discrimination is Promoted In recent years, the topic on the legal regulation against algorithmic discrimination and ethical anomie continued. In 2019, the United States published Algorithmic 23

Data Source: The website of Facebook, https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Fac ebooks-response-to-Australias-proposed-News-Media-and-Digital-Platforms-Mandatory-Bargai ning-Code.pdf. 24 Data Source: Google Blog, https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/australia/top-que stions-news-code/. 25 Data Source: The website of CNBC, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/australia-passes-itsnews-media-bargaining-code.html. 26 Data Source: The website of ABC, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-24/news-media-bargai ning-code-passes-parliament-facebook-ban/13186354.

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Accountability Act of 2019. Since then, algorithmic regulation on digital platforms has been upgraded progressively. According to the data of the U.S. National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), by April 2021, 16 states in the United States (including State of Alabama) had enacted relevant laws to regulate AI technology and algorithm.27 In April 2021, the European Union released Artificial Intelligence Act to regulate algorithmic discrimination, big data-enabled price discrimination against existing customers and algorithm-related deceptive information. Lexology, an international legal news website, uncovers that previously, Europe imposed fines of up to 30 million euros every year on digital-platform algorithms, accounting for 6% of the total in the world. The latest algorithm-regulation law that the European Union has launched helps to ease the trust crisis in the field of AI. The law will effectively circumscribe illegal acts in two aspects: enterprises that develop algorithms that do not have transparency or legitimacy; enterprises that use algorithms to engage in illegal collection of personal information.28 Harvard Business Review comments that in consideration of rigid regulatory legal restrictions on algorithms, platforms that master algorithmic technology need to share the information of algorithmic process appropriately and make the algorithm per se as transparent as possible, so as to avoid legal sanctions.29 Michalsons, a legal consulting firm, publishes an article, which emphasizes that Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2019 of the United States and a series of European acts will enable large Internet-platform corporations to avoid possible identity discrimination and ethical anomie when developing algorithmic services, and that the whole society needs to better balance overall algorithmic benefits and individual algorithmic losses. With respect to the future legal regulation on algorithms, three rules must be considered. Firstly, the algorithmic system must be as free and fair as possible. Secondly, the transparency and accountability of the algorithmic system developed by individuals or corporations must be enhanced. Thirdly, the legal regulation on algorithms must be based on principles rather than regulations.

6.5 Trends in the Technological Development of World Internet Media Presently, attempts are made to upgrade world Internet media at the technological level. In the COVID-19 pandemic, cloud connection and online conferences become the main trend. The rise of audio socializing represented by Clubhouse exemplifies the potential power in the transformation and upgrading of social-media forms. No 27

Data Source: NCSL, https://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-tec hnology/2020-legislation-related-to-artificial-intelligence.aspx. 28 Data Source: Lexology, https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a390880a-d8b5-47a0bf90-d91226ae5d26. 29 Data Source: Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2021/04/algorithmic-nudges-dont-haveto-be-unethical.

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matter in traditional film and television industry severely buffeted by the COVID-19 pandemic or in thriving streaming-media film and television industry, the possibility of market-content integration is experimented.

6.5.1 Online Conference Catalyzes the New Normal of Cloud Connection Zoom is an online audio and video conferencing software. Developed in 2011, Zoom provides local services in 17 countries. By January 2021, Zoom’s fiscal-year revenue had increased by more than 400% year on year, boasting one of the software with the highest downloads in Asia, Europe and the United States in 2020.30 In June 2021, the market value of Zoom exceeded 96 billion U.S. dollars. As an original cloud-end platform based on cloud-end servers of Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s AWS, Zoom provides users with more stable experience than traditional platforms like Skype and Webex. In 2020, Zoom’s share price rose by more than 500%, ranking the 1st in the growth of technology stocks in American stock market. Since its start in early 2020, Tencent Meeting has been staged in more than 100 countries and regions in the world, with over 100 million users in less than a year. As users gradually adapt to cloud-connection-based working style, the scale of global online conference market will double to 10.092 billion U.S. dollars and maintain a CAGR of 9.8% by 2026, as estimated.31 According to a UNESCO survey, the COVID-19 pandemic severely interfered with the normal teaching order of schools in the world, and 91% of the total number of students in the world had to choose to suspend classes or study online in the worst time.32 In March 2020, UNESCO launched Global Education Coalition to address the problems that existed in the resumption of educational systems. In the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom and Tencent Meeting successively joined Global Education Coalition and provided free online communication services for more than 1.2 billion students in the world, helping to hedge against the impact of the pandemic on teaching. The application of cloud video improves online education and furnishes online teaching with low-cost and high-efficiency services. Under such circumstances, the scale of global online education market will grow at a CAGR of 14.6% from 2020 to 2026, and will realize 37.43 billion U.S. dollars in 2026.33

30

Data Source: Sensor Tower, https://content-na1.emarketer.com/zoom-wants-make-sure-videohas-staying-power-post-pandemic-world. 31 https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/video-conferencing-market-100293. 32 Data Source: UNESCO, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000376061. 33 Data Source: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/12/17/2146962/0/en/GlobalE-learning-Market-Size-Trends-Will-Reach-USD-374-3-Billion-by-2026-Facts-Factors.html.

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The potential demand of telemedicine for cloud video continues to increase. In the COVID-19 pandemic, 34% of Americans used Zoom for telemedicine.34 In March 2020, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany unyoked regulatory restrictions and revised privacy-related regulations to support telemedicine models that covered video diagnose-through-interrogation. In 2019, the proportion of global video consultation reached c. 1% and would rise to 5% in the end of 2021 as predicted, with a market scale of more than 25 billion U.S. dollars.35 In the COVID-19 pandemic, the cancellation of large-scale scientific and technological events caused a direct economic loss of more than one billion U.S. dollars.36 Mobile World Congress (MWC), originally scheduled to be staged in Barcelona in February 2020, was called off. Facebook F8 and Global Marketing Summit were formerly scheduled to be held in February 2020, and were later held online in March. With the development of cloud technology, online conference gradually matures in function and forms the ability to provide cloud services for transnational cooperation. In April 2020, Tencent Meeting came to an agreement with the United Nations to support thousands of online activities for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

6.5.2 Audio Social Media Face Both Opportunities and Challenges In 2021, Clubhouse emerged rapidly and thereupon attracted public attention to the transformation of the function and service form of social media industry. As a social audio app that was developed in March 2020, Clubhouse runs a registrationinvitation system. At the outset, one user can only invite one person. Later, one user can invite two or more. Users can choose the topics they are interested in and join the corresponding rooms according to algorithmic recommendation. The number of users in each room is limited to 500, and what they chat will not be saved when the room changes. In Clubhouse, private content is shared among a group in which new members are invited only, making it hard to obtain an account. The invitation code of Clubhouse was frequently unavailable and even hyped to more than 1000 U.S. dollars for a time. The emergence of Clubhouse is directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as its social model. On the one hand, home isolation in the pandemic increases citizens’ demand for online social activities. On the other hand, sharing a private room 34

Data Source: Global Alliance to Combat COVID-19 (GACC), https://chart-na1.emarketer.com/ 242850/how-us-physicians-healthcare-practitioners-accessing-telehealth-their-practice-of-respon dents-aug-2020. 35 Data Source: Deloitte, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/cn/Documents/techno logy-media-telecommunications/deloitte-cn-tmt-predictions-2021-zh-201214.pdf. 36 Data Source: eMarketer, https://content-na1.emarketer.com/the-five-short-term-and-long-termimpacts-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-on-connectivity-and-tech-companies-2020-3.

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with big names gives users a false impression that real identity plays an insignificant role in social circles. For the two reasons, new socializing models inevitably come to rise, so does audio social media. As a well-received social audio app, Clubhouse was firstly popular among founders of start-ups, investors and senior executives in the field of digital technology. Later, Clubhouse was widely favored in the world. In February 2021, users downloaded Clubhouse 9.6 million times; yet the download considerably slowed down in March 2021, dropping to 2.7 million times, down 72%. One view was upheld that users came to realize that the weakly-connected virtual socializing with elites cannot really help them jump out of information cocoons that took root in original social circles. With the resumption of production, Clubhouse users returned to reality again. Presently, Twitter is testing its product TicketedSpaces, a counterpart of Clubhouse. Compared with Clubhouse, Twitter owns large scale, complete infrastructure and content-review experience to promote audio socializing. Discord, an audio social platform that develops from game voice, also expanded rapidly in the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the number of global Discord users totaled 140 million, up 100% over 2019. In December 2020, the appraisal value of Discord reached 7 billion U.S. dollars. In April 2021, Microsoft negotiated to acquire it at a price of 10 billion U.S. dollars at least.37 Stereo, another emerging audio socializing network, which is functionally akin to Clubhouse, adds functions like automatic social matching. Since its launch in August 2020, the total global installation of Stereo has reached 3.2 million times. Additionally, various forms of media also diversify the functions of audio socializing. LinkedIn, the social media in workplace, tests its function of audio socializing. Spotify, the music streaming media, incorporates podcasts and podcast creators into its business, and acquires Locker Room, an audio socializing platform that focuses on sports. Noticeably, the commercialization of audio socializing meets a series of challenges from various problems, such as the uncertainty of user scale and use frequency, the difficulty in measuring the effect of commercial promotion, and the instability of content-review mechanism. Now, Clubhouse comes to stage of slump in the growth of user number, and Twitter cannot maintain the user scale of its audio socializing media. Certainly, audio socializing requires less time and energy than video socializing yet more time and energy than other ways to count thumbs. Users have a very short attention span, which complicates the commercial promotion of audio socializing.

37

Data Source: The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/articles/discord-ends-deal-talkswith-microsoft-11618938806.

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6.5.3 The Transformation of Film and Television Industry into Streaming Media Accelerates In the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional film and television industry was severely mauled, which meant an opportunity for the development of emerging streamingmedia platforms and further promoted the transformation of traditional film and television industry to the technology and business model of streaming media. In the pandemic, home isolation made streaming media the first choice of entertainment for consumers, and the use of streaming media by global consumers increased significantly. Netflix, which took the lead in streaming media, enlarged its advantages. In 2020, its subscription rose by 37 million, and its global subscription reached 200 million. In 2020, Netflix realized an annual business revenue of 25 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 24% year on year (over 2019), of which 53.7% came from the markets outside North America.38 “Disney+”, Disney’s streaming-media platform, had more than 100 million subscriptions in March 2021. With many well-known IPs, Disney is expected to challenge Netflix as a powerful competitor in the future. Hulu, which Disney took over in 2019, also had 40 million subscriptions in the end of 2020. In 2020, Amazon had around 35 million subscriptions. “Apple TV+” grows slowly in subscription. Presently, c. 62% of “Apple TV+” users have free trials when they buy Apple devices.39 HBO Max, a rising star, was launched in May 2020. On the strength of a series of classic film and television works in its copyright library, such as Friends and The Big Bang Theory, HBO Max gained more 1.7 million users in five months.40 In the fourth quarter of 2020, Netflix’s share of the streaming media market fell from 25 to 22%, yet that of HBO Max increased from 9 to 12%.41 Streaming media seized the opportunity and expanded vigorously in the COVID19 pandemic, whereas traditional film and television industry suffered a heavy blow. In 2020, global film box office only reached 12 billion U.S. dollars under the impact of the pandemic, down c. 72% year on year (over 2019), ending the more-than-10-year growth in global film box office. Traditional film and television industry attempted to achieve new development with the help of the transformation of streaming media. Wonder Woman 1984 by WarnerMedia was launched at both cinemas and HBO Max (a streaming-media platform of Warner). Soon afterwards, WarnerMedia decided to launch all its 2021 films at HBO Max. Disney’s Mulan was also transferred to “Disney+” (Disney’s streaming-media platform) for its debut. Film companies that

38

Data Source: Nielsen, https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2021/tops-of-2020-nie lsen-streaming-unwrapped/. 39 Data Source: https://observer.com/2020/06/apple-tv-plus-is-losing-against-netflix-disney-plusamazon-hulu/. 40 Data Source: Variety, https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/friends-number-one-show-hbo-max-123 4717416/. 41 Data Source: Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbean/2021/01/09/this-new-streamingreport-shows-that-hbo-max-is-gaining-on-netflix-amazon-and-hulu/?sh=19a3b1fd7d86.

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had not established streaming-media platforms adopted the dual strategy of delaying the release and selling to streaming-media platforms. Now, theatre chains are successively opened, yet film distribution models are likely to change. In March 2021, WarnerMedia signed an agreement with Regal Cinemas, which signaled that WarnerMedia would return to cinema business in 2022. WarnerMedia would reduce the screening time from 90 to 45 days and launch its films at HBO Max.42 ViacomCBS adopted a similar strategy. Films were shown in cinemas for 30–45 days only before entering “Paramount+”. Netflix even tried to negotiate with cinemas to shorten the screening time prior to the outbreak of the pandemic.43 In the future, traditional film and television industry may consider how to balance the profits from streaming media and cinemas.

42

Data Source: https://variety.com/2021/film/news/regal-cinemas-reopen-cineworld-godzilla-vskong-1234936229/. 43 Data Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/business/irishman-netflix-theaters.html.

Chapter 7

World Cybersecurity Development

7.1 Outline In 2021, global cybersecurity faced a grimmer picture. Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attacks against governmental agencies became extremely active. SolarWinds Event, the blackmail attack on the U.S. oil pipeline operator and other widespread cyberattacks occurred frequently. Besides, the number of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exposures maintained a high growth rate, large-scale data-leakage incidents arose successively, the illegal collection and abuse of personal information became more prominent, and the situation of cybersecurity in industrial manufacturing, mobile network, public cloud and other fields remained gloomy. The innovation on cybersecurity technologies like data-privacy protection and new technological security and risk prevention attained continuous achievements, and cyber resilience became a buzz word in the field of cybersecurity. In line with the changes in international landscape and the needs of national development, various countries in the world continued to strengthen the revision and perfection of cybersecurity policies and strategies, highlight the work on supply-chain security, key informationinfrastructure protection, data-security protection and biometrics, and take multiple measures to consolidate the construction of cybersecurity capacity. Generally, the COVID-19 pandemic had little impact on global cybersecurity industry. The scale of cybersecurity industry grew stably, and venture capital to cybersecurity industry hit a new record high, with hopeful market outlook and development trend. Cloud security market also increased significantly. In spite of the facts that global cybersecurity-talent gap displayed a narrowing trend for the first time and that cybersecurity-talent team building and skill training continuously improved, global cybersecurity-talent shortage remained in the doldrums.

© Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, World Internet Development Report 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7_7

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7.2 Cybersecurity Threats Continue to Evolve Global APT attacks remain active, and APT organizations continually emerge. The targets of APT attacks include important fields such as government, national defense and military industry and finance. The security weakness of the supply chain of cybersecurity industry becomes increasingly visible. The number of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exposures maintains a high growth rate, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities affect wider fields. As the risk of data leakage swells, large-scale data-leakage events happen thick and fast, the ransoms frequently reach new highs, and the problem of illegal collection and abuse of personal information becomes more serious. The situation of cybersecurity in industrial manufacturing, mobile network, public cloud and other major fields presents a bleak future.

7.2.1 Typical Trends in Cybersecurity Risks and Threats 1. APT In 2020, global APT attacks proved extremely active, with 687 public reports throughout the year. Among them, 132 organizations were involved in the exposure, and 25 organizations were firstly exposed. More unknown APT organizations emerged, and many known organizations expanded the attack fields. Significant changes took place from the targeted region to industrial field. In particular, the attacks on suppliers intensified. After APT organizations used “zero-day weapons”, the current-preferred-attack tactics emerged. For example, OceanLotus often adopted the attack-on-suppliers strategy and preferred educational industry.1 The attack on the supply chain of SolarWinds exposed in December 2020 made the fact surface that suppliers were evolving into the weaknesses in security industry. In response to the attack, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advised institutions and organizations to solve system-related vulnerabilities and share threat-related information, so as to support the response of relevant departments of the Department of Homeland Security. Simultaneously, institutions and organizations must allocate sufficient resources, encourage third-party support, and consider rebuilding Orion’s cyber assets. 2. Vulnerability From January to October 2020, the number of public vulnerabilities and exposures events worldwide reached 730, which caused the exposure of more than 22 billion records. To be specific, 35% of the intrusions related to ransomware attacks, and 14% of the intrusions resulted from e-mail leakage. From 2015 to 2020, the 1

Beijing Qihoo 360 Technology Co., Ltd.: 2020 Research Report on Global APT, February 2021, https://rsbeijing.oss.yunpan.360.cn/Object.getFile/360report/MjAyMOWFqOeQg+mrmOe6p+ aMgee7reaAp+WogeiDgUFQVOeglOeptuaKpeWRii5wZGY=.

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number of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) increased at an average annual growth rate of 36.6%. Browsers like Google’s Chrome, Firefox, IE and Edge were main targets of “zero-day”. Microsoft and Oracle released and updated key patches monthly and quarterly respectively; notwithstanding, that involved hundreds of vulnerabilities and had difficulty in determining the priority of repair.2 Additionally, in the COVID-19 pandemic, a substantial number of Remote Display Protocol (RDP) ports were exposed. The number increased rapidly, exceeding 4.5 million by March 2020. The main reason for RDP-port exposure was that the passwords were excessively simple, which allowed attackers to use brute force attacks to gain access. Presently, there is a complete set of business that centers on RDP at dark web. In order to protect the business from attack, the business follows security principle and uses strong password and vulnerability repair, for example.3 3. Data Security Under the teleworking model and cloud-based business operation model, the access to sensitive data soars and the risk of data leakage enlarges. In 2020, according to the in-depth analysis of data-leakage events of more than 500 organizations in the world, the average cost loss to enterprises totaled 3.86 million U.S. dollars, and 80% of the events caused the exposure of customers’ personal identity information. The loss cost of oversize data-leakage events mounted, and the loss cost of more than 50 million records from the leakage jumped from 388 million U.S. dollars in 2020 to 392 million U.S. dollars. The number of leakage records ranged from 400,000 to 50 million, with the average loss cost reaching 364 million U.S. dollars, with an increase of 19 million U.S. dollars over 2019.4 The problem of illegal collection and abuse of personal information deteriorates. Internet corporations like Google and Facebook face lawsuits in many countries for illegal collection and use of users’ data. In March 2021, Google faced a class action, which accused Google of secretly collecting users’ data when users chose the “stealth mode” of privacy, requiring Google to compensate at least 5 billion U.S. dollars. In June 2020, Google was accused of tracking personal information in case that users took measures to protect their private information. In December 2020, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission filed a lawsuit, accusing Facebook and its Onavo Protect (an app platform) of using their servers to collect important data on personal activities and obtain commercial benefits by supporting market analysis and related activities. 2

Data Source: Tenable, 2020 Threat Landscape Retrospective, 2021.01, https://pt-br.tenable.com/ cyber-exposure/2020-threat-landscape-retrospective. 3 Data Source: McAfee, Cybercriminals Actively Exploiting RDP to Target Remote Organizations, https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/other-blogs/mcafee-labs/cybercriminals-actively-exploitingrdp-to-target-remote-organizations/. 4 Data Source: Cost of a Data Breach Report 2020 published by IBM Security, July 2020, https:// www.ibm.com/news/cn/zh/2020/08/05/20200805.html.

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4. Ransomware According to incomplete statistics, in the first half of 2021, there were at least 1200 attacks launched by ransomware in the world, approximating to 1420 attacks as exposed in 2020. Particularly, the attacks on medical system and educational industry expanded by 45%, with the average ransom rising from 400,000 U.S. dollars in 2020 to 800,000 U.S. dollars in 2021.5 In these ransomware attacks, around 70% of ransom gangs adopted the strategy of double ransom, threatening that victims must pay huge ransoms for data leakage. As ransoms were generally paid via cryptocurrency, whose security and anonymity posed difficulties and challenges to the tracking work of law-enforcement departments. In the future, high-value customers of cloud-based enterprises will be one of major targets of ransomware. Besides, with the popularization of ransomware technology and the maturity of ransomware industrial chain, ransomware attacks will become more diverse and frequent. Now, ransomware arises on platforms like Mac OS and Android. As the preventive measures of Windows improve, illegal hackers may turn to attack other platforms in the future.

7.2.2 Trends in Cybersecurity Threats in Key Sectors 1. The Industrial Sector Suffers Serious Cyberattacks. Internet threat remains the biggest source of threats in the industrial sector. In 2020, there were c. 70 publicly-reported industrial information security incidents, involving eight sectors, i.e. equipment manufacturing (27%), energy (electricity, oil and natural gas, 22%), transportation (14%), electronic information manufacturing (12%), consumer goods manufacturing (11%), water conservancy (7%), raw materials (4%), and software and information services (3%). From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of incidents that arose from ransomware attacks increased for three consecutive years, ranking the 1st among the causes of global incidents on industrial information security for two consecutive years, far higher than other attack means. In 2020, the proportion even reached 57.1%, and around 16% of industrial computers worldwide suffered cyberattacks every month. The sectors with highproportion attacks of industrial control systems were mostly distributed in the middle and low end of the industrial chain, or in Asia and Africa that mainly developed processing and manufacturing sectors. The proportion of ransomware attacks was lower in Europe and North America.6 5

DBAPP Security: Global Ransomware Trends Report in the First Half of 2021, June 2021, https:// mp.weixin.qq.com/s?src=11×tamp=1626682101&ver=3199&signature=dxnQxOgmQUex NF4NeYr6Ir*G3VTI3OBprVURS*b9TV3d6d5sZKQRH4knZHG26FkfU8npB*VeWEd3F29 QTXINq-LbHpnBEBhdtxd1Ez00bkvaztEDKWMWof6EGOjo97xp&new=1. 6 CIC: Analysis of Industrial Information Security Situation in 2020–2021, January 2021, https:// apptdavtird9749.h5.xiaoeknow.com/content_page/eyJ0eXBlIjoiMiIsInJlc291cmNlX3R5cGUiOjI wLCJyZXNvdXJjZV9pZCI6ImVfNjAwYTg1MDdlNGIwZjE3NmFlYzg5ZGMzIiwiYXBwX2lk IjoiYXBwdERBdnRpUkQ5NzQ5IiwicHJvZHVjdF9pZCI6IiIsInJlZl9pZCI6InJfNjAwYTg1MDd lNGIwZjE3NmFlYzg5ZGM0In0.

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2. Mobile Malware Rages All Over the World. In 2020, in the COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking emerged extensively, which dramatically expanded the scope of mobile attacks. And 97% organizations faced mobile threats from various types of attacks. Almost all organizations experienced at least one mobile malware attack, 93% of which came from device networks. Mobile malware attacks tried to trick users into installing malicious programs via infected websites or URLs, so as to steal user credentials. Nearly 50% organizations were affected by malicious mobile apps, and 46% organizations had at least one employee who downloaded malicious mobile apps. At least 40% global mobile devices had inherent vulnerabilities. Owing to the problem of chipset defects, vulnerabilities were commonly detected in mobile devices, and security patches were urgently needed to be installed. 3. Cloud Security Still Faces Severe Challenges. In 2020, Cybersecurity Insiders, an information security community, conducted an online survey of 653 cybersecurity and IT professionals, in order to understand the latest trends, key challenges and solutions on cloud security in various industries and fields. As the survey suggested, four major security threats to current public cloud included cloud-platform configuration error (primary threat), unauthorized cloud access, unsafe interface and account hijacking. In descending order, main cloudbased security barriers were respectively the lack of qualified employees, budget constraints, data-privacy issues, and the lack of integration with local security. In terms of the effectiveness of security tools, 82% respondents stated that traditional security solutions were of no avail, or only provided limited protection in the cloud environment. Vis-à-vis in 2019, 66% respondents held the view. In terms of the budget of cloud security, 59% organizations expected their budgets to increase, and averagely, 27% security budget would be allocated to cloud security.7

7.3 Various Countries in the World Continue to Improve the Formulation of Cybersecurity Policies Facing the severe situation of cybersecurity, various countries in the world continue to strengthen the strategic role of cybersecurity, strive to enhance the protection of supply-chain security and data security, and actively facilitate the construction of national cybersecurity capacity. However, benefit frictions exist in the fields of cyber sovereignty, data-security protection and supply-chain security.

7

Data Source: Check Point and Cybersecurity Insiders, CLOUD SECURITY REPORT 2020, 2020.08, https://cloudxchange.io/assets/documents/2020-cloud-security-report.pdf.

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7.3.1 The Formulation of Cybersecurity Policies: A Survey In line with the changes of international landscape and the needs of national development, various countries continue to improve the strategic layout of cybersecurity. In July 2020, European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) released A Trusted and Cyber Secure Europe, which aimed to advance cybersecurity, preparedness and trust within the European Union. In December 2020, the European Union issued The EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade. Giving suggestions on regulations, investment and policy tools, The EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade aimed to lead and build more secure cyberspace and ensure and promote the development of EU’s digital economy. In August 2020, Australia released Cyber Security Strategy 2020, which outlined Australia’s way to ensure the online security of individuals, key infrastructure providers and enterprises. Cyber Security Strategy 2020 intended to establish a “more secure online world” and put forward a “plan to protect Australian online users”, with emphasis on enforcing the laws and strengthening Australia’s national cybersecurity organizations. In October 2020, Singapore initiated Singapore’s Safer Cyberspace Masterplan 2020, which proposed three strategic goals (i.e. protecting core digital-technology facilities, protecting digital activities and helping cyber-related population) and planned to implement 11 measures in three years to improve cybersecurity levels in all aspects. In March 2021, the U.S. White House published Interim National Security Strategic Guidance. As the first policy-guidance document issued by the Biden administration that comprehensively responded to international and domestic situations, the Guidance particularly mentioned cybersecurity, clearly stating that cybersecurity meant the top priority and that the United States would strengthen its cyberspace capability, readiness and resilience. In May 2021, U.S. President Biden signed and issued Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, which elaborated on general ideas and specific requirements of the Biden administration on strengthening and improving the management of the U.S. cybersecurity. In March 2021, the United Kingdom promulgated Global Britain in a Competitive Age—The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, the first time that the United Kingdom issued similar report since the end of the Cold War. As a guidance document for British cybersecurity, it emphasized the strategic role of cybersecurity and drew a blueprint after Brexit, hoping to forge British influence worldwide in a deeper and wider way. Additionally, Malaysia launched Cybersecurity Strategy 2020–2024, and Pakistan released National Cybersecurity Policy 2021 (Draft), which constantly diversified and optimized their national cybersecurity policy systems. As the report Trends in Digital Africa 2021 reveals, 64% African countries have now formulated national overall policies or ICT masterplans, vis-à-vis less than 40% five years ago.

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7.3.2 Key Layout of Cybersecurity 1. Buttressing the Supply Chain Security Against the backdrop of global combat against the COVID-19 pandemic and the farreaching influence of attacks on supply chain (e.g. SolarWinds Event), various countries attach more attention to the problems on their supply chains. There are basically two trends. They stress, on the one hand, the diversified layout of the supply chain, and on the other hand, the integrity of their supply chains. In September 2020, Japan, India and Australia came to an agreement, launching the initiative to establish a resilient supply chain in the Indo-Pacific Region. In November 2020, the United Kingdom released 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy, which summarized how British government would ensure “it will never relying on a few telecom suppliers” and create a diversified structure of British telecom supply market. Australia published Critical Technology Supply Chain Principles (Draft) in August 2020 and Guidelines for Identifying and Managing Network Supply Chain Risks in January 2021, which hoped to help enterprises identify the risks related to network supply chains and offer best practices for managing network-supply-chain risks. At the beginning of 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce and other departments successively released Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain and Export Administration Regulations to continuously strengthen procedure management like the security-risk identification, assessment and handling of external dependence on cybersecurity products and services. In February 2021, U.S. President Biden signed Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains, instructing federal agencies to review the security risks of supply chains in various industries (including information technology), in order to address the fragility and risk of America’s supply chains and build more resilient and secure supply chains. The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate also introduced many acts to continuously strengthen the supply chain security in semiconductor manufacturing and other fields. In April 2021, German Bundestag approved Communication Security Act 2.0, a more stringent 5G security act, which would restrict 5G technology of “untrustworthy” suppliers, and require local telecom operators to notify German government when signing 5G key components. 2. The Protection of Critical Information Infrastructure In recent years, as attacks on critical information infrastructure continued to increase, how to ensure the secure and stable operation of critical information infrastructure became a central issue in various countries. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published new-edition Guidelines on Human Resources in Critical Infrastructure: Ensuring the Resilience of Communities and Countries in Response to the COVID-19, which clarified the requirements for departments and personnel to implement the protection of critical information infrastructure. In February 2021, CISA released a document called CISA Global Engagement, which proposed four action guidelines, i.e. business cooperation, building capacity, stakeholder’s participation and expansion and shaping policy environment. As the document stated, the United States would reinforce the security and resilience of

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global critical information infrastructure by boosting international cooperation. In November 2020, Australia issued Amendment to Security Legislation (Critical Infrastructure) Act 2020 (Draft), which implemented the “framework for enhancing the security and resilience of Australia’s critical infrastructure”. In the meantime, the United Kingdom introduced Telecommunications Security Act (Draft) to ensure the “long-term security and resilience” of the British telecommunications network. In January 2021, Brazil launched Act Nº 77 Cyber Security Requirements for Telecommunication Equipment. In response to a number of major cybersecurity incidents in recent years, Ukraine introduced Legislation on Critical Information Infrastructure (Draft) in March 2021, so as to strengthen the protection of critical information infrastructure. In April 2021, the State Duma of Russia passed Act on the Fines and Protection of Critical Information Infrastructure. 3. Strengthening Data-Security Protection Confronted with the grimmer picture of data-security threats, various countries attach great importance to data security. In June 2020, European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) released EDPS Strategy 2020–2024—Shaping a Safer Digital Future, which focused on “digital solidarity” and continued to consolidate datasecurity protection from three aspects, i.e. prospect, operability and coordination. The Presidential Office of Brazil promulgated a law to establish new data-protection agencies. In September 2020, the United Kingdom issued National Data Strategy and canvassed public opinion. National Data Strategy established a framework for processing and investing data and promoting economic development. In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense released the first data strategy DoD Data Strategy, which outlined eight guiding principles, four basic capabilities and seven major goals to build DoD into a “data-centered organization”. In October 2020, Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD, Spain) published Guidelines for Data Protection by Default, which explained the strategies, specific measures, records and audit requirements of the principles for data protection by default. In January 2021, the 1st ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting (ADGMIN) approved the release of ASEAN Data Management Framework (DMF) and ASEAN Model Contractual Clauses for Cross Border Data Flows (MCCs), which aimed to make internal data-flow rules in ASEAN for the development of regional digital economy and digital trade, so as to facilitate the business operation in relation to data in ASEAN, reduce the costs of negotiation and compliance, and ensure the protection of personal data in the process of cross-border data transmission. Besides, Nigeria released Data Protection Law 2020 (Draft), Brazilian National Data Protection Authority published Strategic Plan 2021–2023, and Irish Data Protection Commission issued Regulatory Strategy 2021–2026 and sought public advice to continuously fortify data-security protection. Simultaneously, countries expedite the layout of personal-information and privacy-data protection, further clarify the scope of the use of personal information, and severely crack down on the illegal use of personal information. In March 2021, Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) of Singapore promulgated The Guide on Active Enforcement, which contained the details of voluntary commitments under

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Personal Data Protection Act, as well as information on law-enforcement actions and economic penalties. In September 2020, Information Commissioner’s Office of the United Kingdom released Guide for Data Protection in Collecting Customer Information. In November 2020, Japan formulated Guide 1.0 for Privacy Management for Enterprises in the Era of Digital Transformation to help start-ups solve the problems related to the construction of personal-privacy management. In November 2020, New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner published Framework for Compliance and Regulatory Actions. In April 2021, the French data protection authority issued the document Anonymization of Personal Data. Various countries are deeply concerned with ensuring the orderly and secure cross-border flow of data. The European Union published Measures that Supplement Data Cross-Border Transfer Tools to Ensure Compliance with the EU Level of Protection of Personal Data, which provided further guidance for data protection in cross-border data flows. The EU member states actively released documents like European Data Gateway as the Key Element of the EU Digital Decade, which foregrounded the intention of building a “single data market” to safeguard the data flow between the EU member states and industrial sectors. In April 2020, Turkish Data Protection Authority issued Announcement on Commitment Letters for CrossBorder Data Transfers. In June 2020, the United Kingdom announced its future strategy of technology and trade after Brexit, allowing the free flow of data between the United Kingdom and some Asia–Pacific countries. Dubai introduced new International Financial Centre Data Protection Law, which stipulated the notification procedures, accountability, record keeping, fines and appropriate jurisdiction for cross-border transfers of personal data for data protection commissioners, in order to foster the free flow of cross-border data. 4. Th Prevention and Control of Biometric Data Security Risks With the wide application of new technologies like 5G and AI, the security risks of face recognition arouse more attention. The legislative progress of relevant policies in various countries accelerates, and corresponding regulatory constraints become clearer. In January 2021, the Advisory Committee of Convention for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data released the guide on face recognition, which further advanced the application of face recognition, an important technology in the digital era, toward regulation. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives also introduced The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Ban Act of 2020. The United States proposed National Biometric Information Privacy Act at the federal level to set norms for the use of biometric data by enterprises. Various states also launched corresponding face recognition acts to restrict the use of biometric technology by public departments. In April 2021, Polish Data Protection Agency issued Guidelines for the Use of Biometric Data. Estonian government introduced an act to establish a database of an automatic biometric system.

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5. Strengthening the Construction of Cyber Armies and Talent Teams As C4ISRNET reports, the U.S. defense budget for fiscal year 2022 proposes the phased addition of 14 cyber armies between fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2024, on the basis of 133 cyber armies of the United States Cyber Command, which can fulfill cyber warfare. In May 2021, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it planned to recruit 200 experts on cybersecurity by July. In November 2020, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson proclaimed the establishment of National Cyber Force (NCF), which engaged in anti-terrorism and cracked down on organized crimes and activities of hostile states in cyberspace. Purportedly, the United Kingdom plans to establish a national cyber force and transfer talents from Ministry of Defence and security services agencies (e.g. Government Communications Headquarters and Military Intelligence 6). Japanese Ministry of Defense intends to enlarge the size of cybersecurity personnel, from 660 in the end of fiscal year 2022 to more than 1,000 in fiscal year 2023. In 2022, Japanese Ministry of Defense also established a new supervision department for cyber defense from Japanese Self-Defense Force, which took charge of integrating corresponding units in various branches to improve the efficiency of cyber defense.

7.4 The Innovation and Development of Cybersecurity Technology In the face of increasingly complex and severe cybersecurity situations, worldrenowned cybersecurity corporations vigorously explore practical paths and make beneficial innovations in cybersecurity technology, which provide technological support for effectively handling various cybersecurity threats.

7.4.1 Cyber Resilience Becomes a Buzz Word in the Field of Cybersecurity As a weathervane that leads the reform and development of global cybersecurity industry, RSAC 2021 took “resilience” as the theme. In June 2020, World Economic Forum (WEF) released Oil and Gas Industry Cyber Resilience: Playbook for Boards and Corporate Officers, which required corporate officers to continuously improve organization’s cyber resilience and assess stock risks and new risks. In 2021 Global Networking Trends Report, Cisco proposed five networking strategies (i.e. secure remote access, trusted intelligent workplace, multi-cloud network, network automation and AI support) to bolster business resilience. In June 2020, Ponemon Institute

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and IBM Security published Annual Survey Report on Cyber Resilient Organizations,8 which stated that more enterprises adopted Cyber Security Incident Response Plan (CSIRP), with the percentage of organizations that achieved high-level cyber resilience rising from 35% in 2015 to 53% in 2020. Accenture, a provider of cyber resilience solutions and services to American government and customers, demonstrated in Innovate for Cyber Resilience 20209 that leading enterprises and organizations placed a high premium on Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) in terms of innovative-technology investment, and regarded SOAR as a key technology and priority-given technology to enhance cyber resilience.

7.4.2 New Practices on Exploring Data Privacy Protection Technological innovation represented by secure computing, trusted execution environment, secure multi-party computing and data desensitization signals beneficial exploration in better protecting sensitive data. The overall self-adaptive method proposed by IBM Security is based on zero trust principle and data privacy protection. It not only realizes regulatory compliance, but also provides trustworthy customer experience. Protegrity, a data security firm, provides data protection solutions that support privacy, advanced analysis, AI, machine learning and cloud plan, which enables technological organizations, system integrators and value-added resellers (VAR) to seamlessly deliver Protegrity’s advanced data protection solutions to common customers. Polypoly, a German start-up, makes a new plan for data use to reset the relationship between data-demanding enterprises and consumers. The plan integrates such elements as distributed computing, data-exchange platforms and non-profit organizations. It not only ensures data under the control of consumers, but also realizes the close monitoring and accuracy of data, so as to take into account the development of data economy and the protection of data privacy.

7.4.3 New AI Attack Means With the rapid development and wide application of AI technology, many vulnerabilities and defects have been incessantly discovered. In addition to traditional cyberattack means, new attack means, represented by AI-targeted reverse attacks, adversarial attacks and dimensionality-reduction attacks, come to rise. Via reverse attacks, some scholars restore face images used for training in face-recognition system and personal 8

Data Source: The Ponemon Institute and IBM Security,“The Cyber Resilient Organization” report, 2020.06, https://www.ibm.com/account/reg/us-en/signup?formid=urx-45839&_ga=2.193783405. 1960168662.1624263242-303856962.1624263242. 9 Data Source: Accenture, INNOVATE FOR CYBER RESILIENCE, 2020.01, https://www.accent ure.com/_acnmedia/PDF-116/Accenture-Cybersecurity-Report-2020.pdf#zoom=40.

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genetic data used in medical-assistance systems, which can cause serious information leakage. Some research teams successfully complete the attack on spam monitoring systems and malicious-program monitoring systems in portable documentformat files by generating adversarial examples. Likewise, some researchers use corresponding means to launch mimicry attacks on Google’s AlexNet and LeNet5 networks, so as to deceive AI devices by misclassification. In May 2021, Microsoft introduced Counterfit, an automated tool for security testing of AI systems, which can be used for adversarial security testing of AI services.

7.5 Cybersecurity Industry Develops Steadily As governments and enterprises in the world pay more attention to cybersecurity year after year, cybersecurity market displays great development potential. In general, the COVID-19 pandemic had less impacts on global cybersecurity industry. The scale of cybersecurity industry maintained stable growth, with hopeful market outlook. In 2021, cybersecurity service market occupied main market share, cloud security became the fastest-growing niche market, and venture capital to cybersecurity industry hit a new record high, in which the United States, Israel and other countries took the lead.

7.5.1 Global Cybersecurity Industry Maintains a Stable Growth Rate As IDC10 predicts, in 2021, global cybersecurity investment reached 143.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 8.7% over 2020. From 2019 to 2024, global expenditure on cybersecurity will realize a CAGR of 9.41% and reach 189.2 billion U.S. dollars by 2024 as estimated. In the first quarter of 2021, Gartner updated and released Forecast: Information Security and Risk Management, Worldwide, 2019–2025.11 As it suggested, in 2021, global expenditure on technology and service concerning information security and risk management was expected to increase by 12.4% and total 150.4 billion U.S. dollars, up 6.4% over 2020. According to Market Analysis Report published by Grand View Research in April 2021,12 the scale of global cybersecurity service market reached 91.15 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. With a CAGR of 10.2% from 2021 10

Data Source: Worldwide Security Spending Guide published by IDC, March 2021, www.idc. com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prCHC47519821. 11 Data Source: Gartner, Forecast: Information Security and Risk Management, Worldwide, 2019– 2025, 1Q21 Update, 2021.03, https://www.gartner.com/document/3999995. 12 Data Source: Grand View Research, Cyber Security Market Size, Share and Trends Analysis Report By Component, By Security Type, By Solution, By Services, By Deployment, By Organization, By Application, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2021–2028, 2021.04, https://www.gra ndviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cyber-security-market.

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to 2028, the scale would increase to 192.7 billion U.S. dollars in seven years. Owing to different calculating approaches, major research institutions estimate overall scale of cybersecurity industry differently yet achieve consensus on the stable growth rate of cybersecurity industrial scale.

7.5.2 Cybersecurity Services Occupy a Dominant Market Position According to the data released by Gartner, cybersecurity services, such as consulting, hardware support, implementation and outsourcing, occupied the largest proportion in global expenditure on cybersecurity services in 2021, which approximated to 72.5 billion U.S. dollars. In niche market, cloud security saw the fastest growth, and IRM (Integrated Risk Management) technology market robustly grew by more than 10%. According to the data published by Grand View Research, professional cybersecurity services dominated the market in 2020, with a market share of more than 72.0%. Professional cybersecurity services mainly cover business support, technological management service, consulting, training and emergency preparation and response service. Relevant researchers stress that three driving forces that boost the scale growth of cybersecurity service market referred to infrastructure demand, testing and response demand and vulnerability and data-risk-protection demand. Predictably, in 2021, the expenditure on cybersecurity products and services in the Asia–Pacific Region would reach 23.1 billion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 12.6%. The Asia–Pacific Region will see the fastest growth in cybersecurity service market in the predictive period. Considering that India, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries continually promote digitization, the Asia–Pacific Region hopefully becomes the engine that fosters the growth of cybersecurity service market. Table 7.1 shows the expenditure on cybersecurity and risk management in niche market from 2020 to 2021.

7.5.3 Venture Capital to Cybersecurity Industry Hits a New Record High As the latest report of Crunchbase,13 a business information platform, suggested, albeit the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 saw a new record high in the venture capital of cybersecurity enterprises, with a total investment of more than 7.8 billion U.S. dollars. In the last decade, venture capital to cybersecurity industry kept rising. Since 2017, around 1500 enterprises have been financed, of which 58% stayed in the seed stage and 32% stayed in the early stage. In 2019, a total of 702 financing transactions 13

Data Source: Crunchbase, Cybersecurity Research Report 2021, 2021.04, https://about.crunch base.com/cybersecurity-research-report-2021/.

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Table 7.1 The Expenditure on Cybersecurity and Risk Management in Niche Market from 2020 to 2021 No.

Niche market

2020 (One million U.S. dollars)

2021 (One million U.S. dollars)

Growth rate (%)

1

Application security 3333

3738

12.2

2

Cloud security

841

41.2

595

3

Data security

2981

3505

17.5

4

Identity access management

12,036

13,917

15.6

5

Infrastructure protection

20,462

23,903

16.8

6

Integrated risk management

4859

5473

12.6

7

Cybersecurity devices

15,626

17,020

8.9

8

Other information security software

2306

2527

9.6

9

Security services

65,070

72,497

10

Consumer security software

6507

6990

133,776

150,409

Total

11.4 7.4 12.4

Data Source Gartner, May 2021

were obtained, with an aggregate amount of c. 7.6 billion U.S. dollars. In 2020, the number of transactions decreased to 665; yet, the total investment increased to 7.8 billion U.S. dollars. Considering that the amount of venture capital to cybersecurity industry had exceeded 3.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first few months of 2021, it probably reached a new high in the end of 2021. In regional distribution, in the past ten years, cybersecurity industry in the United States has raised 30 billion U.S. dollars or so, ranking the 1st in the world, followed by Israel, China and the United Kingdom.

7.6 The Cultivation of Cybersecurity Talents In spite of the facts that the COVID-19 pandemic has less impacts on overall demand for cybersecurity posts and that the gap in global cybersecurity talent presents a narrowing trend for the first time, the huge gap in global cybersecurity talent makes little headway. Countries take various measures to strengthen the construction of cybersecurity talent teams and fortify the training of cybersecurity skills, which constantly improves the skills of cybersecurity talents.

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7.6.1 The Gap in Cybersecurity Talents Presents a Narrowing Trend for the First Time Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and HCL Technologies jointly released the 2021 State of Cybersecurity Report. As it indicated, the demand for cybersecurity posts in 2021 fluctuated gently; however, the recruitment and attraction of cybersecurity talents faced equal challenges as these did in the past years. In November 2020, (ISC)2 , or International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, published 2020 (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study. As noted, by June 2020, about 700,000 new professionals had entered cybersecurity industry in one year, yet the current gap in global cybersecurity talent reached 3.12 million, vis-à-vis 4.07 million in 2019. This betokened a narrowing trend for the first time and meant an 89%-growth in global cybersecurity talent to close the gap. In regional distribution, in 2020, the Asia–Pacific Region had the largest gap in cybersecurity talent, running up to 2.04 million and accounting for 64% of the world. The gap reached 520,000 and 370,000 in Latin America and North America respectively. Michael Page, a global well-known recruitment consulting firm, warned that the biggest challenge to cybersecurity-talent recruitment was talent shortage, followed by the restriction on salary budget and the disparity between job hunters’ skills.

7.6.2 The Skills of Cybersecurity Talents Are Constantly Improved In February 2021, British government established the UK Cyber Security Council, an independent organization that took charge of supervising and ensuring the quality of cybersecurity skill training and certification-professional programs from various regions in the United Kingdom, and providing one-stop service of cybersecurity-skilltraining information. In April 2021, French President Macron announced to invest one billion euros to solidify cybersecurity construction, including strengthening the education and training of cybersecurity personnel and exploring technological solutions. Particularly, French government would spend 140 million euros on the education and training of relevant personnel and build Le Campus Cyber Français with an area of 20,000 square meters. At the beginning of fiscal year 2022, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Engineering College opened a cybersecurity course, hoping to train more cybersecurity talents by teaching basic knowledge like programming language. In 2021, Singapore set up an Operation-Technology-System Cybersecurity Expert Group that consisted of 11 domestic and overseas experts, which would assist Singapore in achieving the goal of overall blueprint of operation-technologysystem cybersecurity and formulate cybersecurity-operation guidelines and relevant training programs. As cybersecurity technology evolves rapidly, employers pay more attention to the practical skills of cybersecurity talents. By dint of a joint professional military training system, American army makes full use of educational resources of

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military and civilian academies to train cyber warfare personnel and organize practical training activities, so as to improve the skills of cyber force in cyber warfare. Cybrary,14 an American cybersecurity skill training platform, stresses in its report that against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of learning on cybersecurity skills increases. Cloud security, as understructure of the securities in other fields, outstrips IoT security and becomes the most popular certification field.

14

Data Source: Cybrary, Cybersecurity Skills Gap, 2020.06, www.cybrary.it/business/resources/ research-papers/cybersecurity-skills-gap-research-report/.

Chapter 8

World Rule-of-Law Construction in Cyberspace

8.1 Outline In the past year, confronted with unprecedented challenges like the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the recession of world economy and the restructuring of global political and economic relations, world rule-of-law construction in cyberspace continued to develop steadily. Taking cyber sovereignty and security as a core element in rule-of-law construction in cyberspace, various countries constructed and optimized cybersecurity rule-of-law systems that centered on the frontiers of issues like combating cybercrimes, governing network platforms and regulating emerging technological risks. (1) In the field of combating cybercrimes, law-enforcement work features collaboration, professionalization and subdivision. Various countries have improved the effect of combating cybercrimes by establishing professional cyber lawenforcement teams and building independent cyber law-enforcement systems. Noticeably, Internet-platform-content review and juvenile protection play a core role in cyber law-enforcement. (2) In the field of cyber sovereignty, various countries have commonly recognized the importance of cybersecurity in national security and taken comprehensive measures (e.g. laws, policies and technological standards) to seek cyber sovereignty and interests. Nevertheless, problems like technology hegemony and militarization of cyberspace cramp global consensus on cyber sovereignty. (3) In the field of governing network platforms, the network scale effect of networkplatform giants poses a threat to the fairness and sharing of network-market competition order. Recently, the legislation on antitrust becomes an important institutional tool for various countries to regulate the competition behaviors of platform markets.

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(4) In the field of regulating emerging technological risks, countries have generally strengthened the regulation on the application models of emerging technologies like blockchain, IoT and biometrics, ensuring that technological innovation remains aligned with the optimization of services. On the one hand, by filling the gap in legislation, various countries prevent the potential risks (e.g. the infringement of personal privacy and other rights) that arise from the application of emerging technologies. On the other hand, various countries diversify regulatory bases and tools, and prudently regulate emerging use cases like Fintech-ecology optimization and blockchain-evidence collection and preservation, on the basis of encouraging the innovation and application of emerging technologies.

8.2 Cybercrime Paints a Grim Picture and Law-Enforcement in Cyberspace Governance Arouses Wide Attention The extensive application of network information technology accelerates the change of human production and life styles, deepens the reform in industries and chains, and improves the quality and efficiency of socioeconomic development. Simultaneously, it facilitates low-cost and high-efficiency cybercrimes. Presently, cybercrimes display the trend of industrialization, low-age and professionalization, and cyberspace evolves into a base where law-breakers endanger national security, public security and personal security. Therefore, taking effective measures to prevent and control cybercrimes, strengthening cyber law-enforcement, and creating favorable cyber environment become major goals in rule-of-law construction in cyberspace in the world.

8.2.1 Cyber Law-Enforcement Continues to Improve and New Law-Enforcement Departments Come to Rise Globally, cybercrimes creep up, which raises higher requirements for cyber governance capacities of governments. Governments in various countries establish cyber law-enforcement departments, and strengthen the construction of law-enforcement organizations via regional, technological and multi-department cooperation, so as to enhance national cyber governance capacities and law-enforcement level. In recent years, the networks of many American governmental agencies and enterprises, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, have been frequently attacked by hackers, which caused great hidden dangers to social security and national security of the United States. In January 2021, the U.S. President signed National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which set up the post of “Cyber Czar” and aimed to coordinate the cybersecurity strategy of American government.

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In April 2021, U.S. President Biden nominated Chris Inglis, former deputy director of National Security Agency, as the first Cyber Czar. The rise of cybersecurity risks requires governments and relevant agencies to change their modus operandi and include cybersecurity issues in their budgets and governance mechanisms. In April 2021, French President Macron announced that French government would invest 136 million euros in the construction of “Cyber Firefighter Program” of the Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information (ANSSI; English: French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems). French government would take prompt response in the event of cyberattacks by establishing emergency agencies in various places. In June 2021, the European Commission proposed to integrate relevant resources and expertise of 27 EU member states and organize a joint cyber department under the leadership of European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), in order to jointly crack down on cybercrimes and cope with the threats of hackers, giving EU member states the power of cross-border monitoring and detecting. The department would be put into operation in June 2022 and fully completed in 2023. The members would comprise experts from EU member states, Europol and European External Action Service. Cybersecurity plays a key role in the development of digital economy. Digital Services Act (Draft) released by the European Union stipulates that the lawenforcement mechanism will cover the cooperation at the national and EU levels to supervise how online intermediaries adapt to new regulatory requirements. Each EU member state needs to appoint a digital-service coordinator, who acts independently and takes the charge of supervising how intermediary-service organs (established in EU member states) coordinate with the authorities of professional departments, as well as imposing penalties (including fines). In April 2021, the United Kingdom set up Digital Market Unit (DMU) within Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that supervised technological giants. Encouraging legitimate market competition, this ensured that technological giants would not harm the interests of consumers and small-sized enterprises with their huge advantages in digital market. As expected, DMU, as a new department, would not be granted substantive power until 2022. Besides, a regulation based on “fair trade, trust and transparency” would be implemented, which was applicable to enterprises deemed to have strategic market positions.

8.2.2 Priority Is Given to Content Review and Platform Review is Strengthened As the center of information aggregation and dispersion, network platforms form a bilateral or multi-lateral market effect through efficient information matching, and become an organizational center of social production and life. Information matching serves as the essence and basis of network platforms, which enables massive information to merge in the platforms. While optimizing resource allocation and facilitating

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social life, network-platform ecology gathers huge amounts of illegal information, which necessitates the strengthening of platform-content review in cyber governance. Limited by technological capacities and law-enforcement resources, administrative authorities cannot directly control all illegal acts in platforms. Instead, they tend to impose legal obligations and responsibilities on platforms, urging platforms to launch internal regulation and achieve public purposes. EU’s Digital Services Act (Draft) provides all participants in an online ecosystem with effective means to combat illegal content, goods and services. It authorizes users to report illegal content in a simple and effective way, creates a privileged channel for trusted signers to report illegal content, and requires platforms to give priority to responding to the content. Permitted by national laws, EU member states can order any platform operating in the European Union to delete illegal content. Additionally, EU member states set security obligations for large-scale online platforms, demanding that these platforms take measures to protect their users from illegal content, goods and services in serving overall organization. In May 2021, British government promulgated new-edition Online Safety Bill (Draft), which required network-service platforms and organizations to strengthen the control over cybersecurity in relation to terrorism, hate crime, cyber bullying and false or misleading information. Violators will face hefty fines. In regard to content that is not illegal but harmful, EU’s Digital Services Act (Draft) attempts to take measures to delete harmful content or encourage the deletion of harmful content on the basis of fully respecting the freedom of expression. The priority is given to repairing platform vulnerabilities and preventing platforms from enlarging harmful acts when being manipulated. The supervision, evaluation and independent audit of the risk management of large-scale platforms reduce the risks of platforms in the protection of basic rights, public interests, public health and public security. In the COVID-19 pandemic, network false information exploded. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a department under British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), stated in its annual report that it handled more than 200 cyber incidents related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past year, which accounted for c. 1/3 of the total reported incidents. In most cases, criminals used complex online methods to illegally obtain public or personal information and property. In March 2020, British government organized an anti-false information group to cope with “interference and false information” related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021, British Crown Prosecution Service said that a man was arrested and sentenced for sending massive fraudulent messages about the COVID-19 vaccines. In line with EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation, the European Union cracked down on massive false information on the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In May 2021, the European Commission released Guideline to Code of Practice on Disinformation, which required Google, Facebook and other Internet platforms to strengthen the handling of false information and discussed how to make them more effective tools to combat false information globally. The Guideline aimed to expand the scope of EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation and require the fulfillment of reporting

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obligations. As planned, the Guideline would be legislatively approved in the autumn of 2021 and promulgated in early 2022. In the supervision of network content, the problem of network-copyright protection becomes increasingly prominent. In March 2021, Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on the case of the copyright litigation or dispute between VG Bild-Kunst (an visual arts association) and Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK, a virtual library). According to the adjudication, websites that displayed links protected by copyright laws would be restricted by copyright owners. Copyright owners had the rights to restrict the links by imposing contractual obligations on the licensees (with the latter taking technological measures), so as to protect the works from infringement.

8.2.3 Transnational Crimes Continue to Increase and International Transnational Law-Enforcement Gets Under Way The development of network technologies enormously promotes socioeconomic development. Yet, criminals use network technologies for crimes in an extensive way, and transnational crimes become a common threat to countries. For a long time, international community lacks a universal and authoritative convention in coping with cybercrimes, which restricts the effectiveness of the cooperation among countries in combating transnational cybercrimes. In May 2021, at the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly, the resolution on the UN Treaty on Cybercrime was adopted, and the negotiation of the above-mentioned convention was scheduled to be officially launched in January 2022. This signaled another key resolution after Resolution 74/247 at the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly, which established the Ad Hoc Committee for the Negotiation of the Convention Against Cybercrime, as well as a significant step towards the formulation of global convention against cybercrime. In 2021, global police and law-enforcement agencies launched a series of largescale “operation” against cybercrime. After German police destroyed the world’s largest dark web market, in January 2021, law-enforcement agencies in the United States, Canada and several European countries jointly destroyed Emotet, a botnet. In January 2021, law-enforcement departments of the United States and Bulgaria collaborated in closing down Netwalker, a website in dark web that was especially used to leak the data of targeted users who did not pay ransom for ransomware. Transnational law-enforcement cooperation among countries contributed to successfully combating against cybercrimes. Transnational law-enforcement functions as an effective means to curb transnational cybercrimes under a globalization system. Many countries and regions come to realize the importance of transnational law-enforcement. In February 2021, EU member states reached consensus on newly-revised E-Privacy Regulation (Draft),

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which aimed to strengthen the protection of user privacy in electronic communication services, and authorized EU member states to punish relevant violations by law. In April 2021, the European Commission released a new strategy on “Defeating the Increasingly Digital Organized Cybercrime Ecosystem”, which emphasized the challenge of investigating organized crimes within the European Union and highlighted specific risk areas, including cryptocurrency transaction, dark market and malicious software. In April 2021, Russian government promoted the ratification of the Agreement on Cooperation of the State Parties of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Fight against Crimes in the Field of Computer Information, emphasizing that various countries, regardless of the development level of information and communication technologies, must ensure cooperation in the field of information security on equal terms. Meanwhile, scientific community, experts and non-governmental organizations in various countries should contribute to solving the issues of information security to varying degrees.

8.2.4 With the Threat to the Vulnerable Groups, the Protection of Children’s Rights and Interests Becomes the Central Issue In June 2021, the U.N. Secretary General António Guterres announced “Roadmap for Digital Cooperation”, promoting digital technology to benefit all people in an equal and safe manner. Digital divide will worsen the social and economic disadvantages of women, children, the disabled and various minority groups. How to protect the rights and interests of the vulnerable groups means a concern of various countries. In this sense, various countries should create a safe and healthy cyber environment for children to meet new requirements of the digital era. According to the statistics of Japanese National Police Agency, in 2020, Japanese police ferreted out 9,875 cases of cybercrimes, of which 1,438 cases ran counter to The Law on the Prohibition of the Purchase of Sexual Services and Pornography Against Children and 1,013 cases to The Regulations on the Protection and Upbringing of Teenagers. In March 2021, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child convoked a meeting in Geneva. The meeting clarified legal guidance (document) on how various countries should protect children’s rights in the digital environment, emphasizing that every child’s rights in the digital environment must be respected, protected and realized, and that children got access to digital content and information that tallied with their age and empowered them via a wide range of diverse and reliable sources. The COVID-19 pandemic popularized children’s use of Internet at home. International community endeavored to curb the violence of cyber bullying on adolescents. Noteworthily, measures to fill the gaps in original system proved more effective. The United States attaches special attention to information security when children use Internet. The United States successively issued Children’s Internet Protection Act

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and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. In September 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced Kids Internet Design and Safety Act, which proposed that operators of child-oriented Internet platforms should be prohibited from publicizing cyber violence, sexual behavior and other content, or using age-verification information of children users for commercial purposes. If online services were targeted at juveniles, Kids Internet Design and Safety Act would prevent the collection of any data. In May 2021, the United Kingdom made special provisions on the compulsory security services available to children in various chapters of Online Safety Bill (Draft). In April 2021, France formally carried out The Act on the Management of Commercial Development of Children’s Video on Online Platforms, which built a regulatory framework for minors in the field of Internet video. The Act stipulated that if the videos of minors were proved to be of a work nature, these minors must be protected by relevant laws on minors’ engaging in performing and modeling work, and their parents must obtain relevant permission or report the above-stated work. Additionally, the Act required video platforms and social institutions to jointly crack down on commercial activities of illegally using minors’ videos. The Act specifically spotlighted that when minors would request video platforms to delete what they made, video platforms must permanently delete the content without parental consent.

8.3 The Awareness of Cyber Sovereignty Is Enhanced and the Rule-of-Law Protection of Cyber Sovereignty Is Strengthened As national competition in cyberspace intensifies, various countries contend for and hold onto a dominant position in cyberspace, with the awareness of national cyber sovereignty constantly enhanced. In particular, against the background of frequent cyber-sovereignty-risk incidents, in order to appropriately safeguard their sovereignty security and development interests, countries deepen and optimize the legislation on cybersecurity and data security, which drives the diversified development of the legal protection of cybersecurity to a certain extent. Besides, largescale network technology corporations expand their influences in international competition, which catalyzes new rules and new orders of pluralistic coexistence.

8.3.1 Cybersecurity Risk Is Continuously Aggravated and the Awareness of Cyber Sovereignty is Significantly Improved In the past year, cyberattack, cyber espionage and cybercrime occurred frequently in the world. The improper collection and use of various types of information data

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by enterprises and other entities seriously imperiled data security and personalinformation security, and posed a continuous major threat to the country, enterprises and society. In the field of political and national security, in 2021, 360 Security Brain captured the 11-year-long cyberattack or cyber penetration targeted at China from APT-C-39, an attack organization of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In the field of economic and industrial development, in May 2021, the United States declared a state of national emergency for the first time owing to a cyberattack. The reason lied in that hackers attacked Colonial Pipeline, the largest refined-oil-pipeline operator in the United States, forcing it to shut down the entire energy-supply network for a time. The cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline immensely affected the supply of fuel oil and other energy on the east coast of the United States and historically marked the most serious cyberattack on the American energy system. As these cybersecurityrisk incidents evidence, national sovereignty security becomes the heart of the matter. (There are mainly two reasons.) Faced with increasingly severe international landscape and competition environment, various countries need to fortify their competitiveness in reality. More deeply, several countries with hegemony in cyberspace intentionally pursue hegemonism and power politics, which wreaks havoc on the opportunities for other countries to express national will and govern cyberspace equally. Therefore, various countries in the world lay more emphasis on the role of cyberspace sovereignty in their sovereignty systems, and significantly heighten the awareness of cyber sovereignty. They also take measures in policy-regulation, legislation and law-enforcement to safeguard their own cyberspace sovereignty. Countries in the world continue to optimize top-level design and launch new guiding strategies or action guidelines. In March 2021, the U.S. government released Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, which provided guidance for various departments and institutions in the formulation of national security strategies. The Guidance proposed to list cybersecurity as the first priority of national security, in order to enhance America’s capability, readiness and resilience in cyberspace. In the competition among major countries that focuses on the innovative IT development and digital space, the European Union intends to regain its dominance and leadership and strengthen its digital competitiveness. In March 2021, the European Commission officially released 2030 Digital Compass: The European Way for the Digital Decade, which aimed to direct the digital-transformation vision of EU’s digital sovereignty by 2030 and construct a people-oriented and sustainable digital society. Against the backdrop of severe cyber threats, digital challenges and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Japanese National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC) published Next Generation Cybersecurity Strategy Outline and Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategy in May 2021, to further the construction of digital society, build a cyber defense system and establish free, public and safe cyberspace. In its document on military-modernization strategies, British government promised that it would increase investment in national defense by 14% in next four years, upgrade cyber weapons globally and research and develop advanced technologies. Notably, facing increasingly-cutthroat competition in cyberspace, various countries generally adopt more proactive cyberspace strategies, and reinforce capital investment, talent training, institution and mechanism support, with the emphasis on enlarging their influence in cyberspace.

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Under the guidance of strategic planning, various countries all advance legislative work for the purposes of national security, commercial interests, as well as the protection of citizens’ privacy, so as to safeguard cyber sovereignty and cybersecurity. In May 2021, Germany’s Communication Security Act 2.0 officially came into effect. By correcting legal loopholes and expanding supervision scope, the Act 2.0 improved the security of German IT systems and strengthened national security. It further augmented the authority of Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) and offered more substantial normative basis for effective supervision. In May 2021, U.S. President Biden signed Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity to strengthen America’s governance capacity of national data security. Admittedly, cyberspace releases new momentum for development; yet, it exacerbates digital divide and security risk therefrom. That cyber sovereignty ideologically takes shape helps to build new order of cyberspace governance featuring justice, reasonableness and equality, and lead more countries to the peaceful path of cyberspace development.

8.3.2 Data-Security Risks Multiply and Legal-Protection Forms Diversify Data becomes basic strategic resource for which various countries vie. With regard to data sovereignty, Tallinn Manual 2.0 holds the view that a country has jurisdiction over the data stored in its territory and its network infrastructure, or the data with an important connection with the country per se. However, opinions vary on whether a country has jurisdiction over the data transmitted via its territory. Most experts consider that a country does not have sovereignty over this part of data. In the past year, governments of various countries have commonly realized that data served as a major factor closely related to national security and international competitiveness, with their cognition of data security from traditionally protecting personal privacy to safeguarding national security. In June 2021, China voted to adopt The Data Security Law of the People’s Republic of China (The Data Security Law for short). As a special law that ensures national data security, The Data Security Law and The Cybersecurity Law (i.e. The Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China) constitute a national data-security governance system, signifying that data security in China has risen to the level of holistic approach to national security and linked up with national security. In February 2020, the European Commission released a series of strategic plans on “shaping the digital future of Europe”, including A European Strategy for Data, which covered the development and legislative framework in the fields of data utilization, AI and platform governance. As a supporting act of EU’s digital strategy, in November 2020, the European Union published the proposal of Data Governance Act. On the basis of the policy of “European Common Data Space”, the proposal proceeded to establish a unified architecture for the secondary use of public data that involved the other party’s rights, so as to build a “Digital Single Market” that covered health, transportation, manufacturing, financial services, energy and agriculture. In general,

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the European Union attaches great importance to data governance in EU member states, and strengthens data sharing mechanism in EU member states by policyrelated and legal means, in order to promote the availability of data and further guarantee data security and digital sovereignty in the European Union. Canada proposed Digital Charter Implementation Act 2020 at the end of 2020, which provided a modern framework for protecting personal information in private sectors. Specifically, it provides that: when enterprises process personal information of Canadian citizens, they must improve controllability and transparency; Canadian citizens are given the freedom to transfer their information from one organization to another in a secure way; Canadian citizens are assured of the right to delete their information; privacy commissioners are given a wide range of order making rights, including the right to force organizations to comply with regulations and the right to order enterprises to stop collecting data or using personal information. In September 2020, Brazilian General Data Protection Law came into effect. Simultaneously, Brazilian government approved the establishment of a national data protection agency that would be responsible for the implementation of the Law, requiring organizations processing data to establish corresponding mechanisms for processing personal data in Brazil and obey the restrictions on cross-border data transmission. In New Zealand, Privacy Act took effect in December 2020, which replaced Privacy Act issued in 1993. The newly-published Privacy Act is applicable to organizations that collect personal information in their businesses in New Zealand, requiring enterprises that collect personal data to notify the affected individuals and the Office of Privacy Commissioner (OPC) in case of privacy leakage. Otherwise, each violation will result in a severe penalty of up to 10,000 New Zealand dollars. In June 2020, Japan promulgated the Amendments to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, which would officially come into force on April 1, 2022. The amended Act presents the latest trend in the protection of personal information in Japan. As required, when Japanese operators provide personal-information data to foreign operators, they need to obtain the consent of individuals and inform individuals of relevant regulations on the protection of personal information in foreign countries, and foreign operators need to take measures equivalent to these on the protection of personal information taken in Japan.

8.3.3 Discourse Power in Cyberspace Becomes More Important and the Game on International Cooperation Continues in Cyberspace Governance International cooperation in cyberspace governance means a right choice to adapt to general trends of cyberspace development and globalization. Notwithstanding, some powerful countries that master cutting-edge technologies in cyberspace always seek for hegemonic position in global cyberspace and compete for network power, which challenges global order in cyberspace governance and has a negative impact on

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the peaceful development of Internet. In April 2021, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations deliberated and adopted The Strategic Competition Act of 2021, which fueled America’s diplomatic strategy in big-power competition and made cyberspace a new battlefield for the United States to maintain global leadership and lead the formulation of global rules. With the Act, the United States practices the strategy of big-power competition in various fields and establishes an America-centered international value system, which goes against the basic principles of cooperative governance. In the process of cooperative governance, the importance of the United Nations framework becomes more prominent. The United Nations coordinates issues concerning global governance in cyberspace, in various areas like cyberspace peace, cyber sovereignty and digital economy. The U.N. Secretary General António Guterres attaches much attention to digital issues. The U.N. High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation is committed to boosting and buttressing cooperation among governments, private sectors, civil society, international organizations, industrial circle, academia and other stakeholders in cyberspace and digital space. Currently, with new driving force and legality, the United Nations re-organizes original disintegrated dialogue mechanism and sets an agenda for digital cooperation and cyberspace peace in the 2020s.

8.4 The Competition in Cyber Economy Intensifies and Cyber-Platform Governance Becomes a Major Field In order to promote the normal operation of cyber economy, various countries have explored the experience of cyber-platform governance. In particular, antitrust in cyber platforms arouses wide attention. The legislation in this regard is continuously strengthened, and the merger rules of platform enterprises are strictly restricted. Antitrust investigations and penalties against large platforms represented by Google, Amazon and Facebook are increasingly reinforced. As platform economy develops robustly, the number of employees shoots up yet the protection of their rights and interests lag behind. Therefore, in various countries, employees are given preferential protection in the legislative and judicial work.

8.4.1 Cyber Economy Thrives and the Legislation on Antitrust Against Platform Continually Strengthens Various countries pay great attention to antitrust against cyber platforms. For instance, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) listed the antitrust issue of digital platforms as the key work and first priority in 2021. In January 2021,

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Germany passed The Amendment to Act Against Restraints of Competition (Digital Competition Law 4.0), which strengthened the regulatory authority against platforms by warranting new law-enforcement power, significantly raised the turnover threshold of enterprises applying for mergers and acquisitions, introduced new tools for digital gatekeepers, and revised the punishment rules for monopolistic behaviors. In June 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives launched a number of antitrust acts, such as Ending Platform Monopolies Act, The American Innovation and Choice Online Act, Platform Competition and Opportunity Act and Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act. These acts meant a major change to existent antitrust legislation in the United States, whose content proved detrimental to many large-scale cyber platforms. In the merger regulation for platform enterprises, in September 2020, the European Union revised relevant provisions in The EU Corporate Merger Control Regulations to strengthen the review standards for merger transactions that failed to meet the declaration standards of EU member states. In December 2020, the European Union published Digital Markets Act (Draft), which reinforced the prior supervision of large-scale digital platforms and required platforms to notify the mergers and acquisitions in advance. In December 2020, British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also proposed to adopt harsh merger rules for platform enterprises, including a wide range of prior notification obligations and the determination of mandatory declaration threshold standards. In June 2021, the United States released Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, which stipulated that unless platforms can prove that the acquired enterprises would not compete with existing products or services on platforms, no merger in any form would be allowed. As a global ticklish problem, antitrust against platform calls for ameliorating the legislation on antitrust against platform and applying multiple means like the supervision of administrative law-enforcement, the optimization of judicial-judgment and the encouragement of platforms’ self-discipline in a comprehensive way. In the past year, Google was the target in the antitrust in Europe, America and Australia. In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as well as the attorneys-general of 11 states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google. At the end of 2020, British Competition and Markets Authority started an antitrust investigation on Google and announced the establishment of Digital Markets Taskforce, so as to better supervise and regulate platform competition. Daily Mail in the United Kingdom took legal action against Google, on the grounds that Google manipulated search results and conducted unfair competition. In January 2021, Australian government adopted News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, which required Google to pay fees for sharing or using news content on platforms. In June 2021, Autorite de la Concurrence in France ruled that Google abused its dominant position in online advertising market, imposing a fine of 220 million euros on Google.

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8.4.2 Employees in Cyber Economy Balloon, with the Employment Responsibility of Platform Put on the Agenda As an emerging product of Internet economy, platform employment features unique flexibility, low security and high risks, making the protection of employees’ rights and interests a hot topic that arouses widespread concern. According to judicial decisions in various countries, the courts tend to identify platform practitioners with employees. Cour de Cassation in France ruled that Uber drivers were regular employees of Uber platform. Shortly afterwards, in September 2020, Supreme Court of the United States adjudicated that workers of Glove, a food-delivery software, were Glove employees. In January 2021, Supreme Court of the United Kingdom decided that Uber drivers were employees rather than self-employed workers or contractors, who enjoyed basic rights and guarantees such as minimum wage and paid leave. Globally, the employment responsibility of platforms will be carried out more sternly, and employees be given preferential protection in the legislative work. Legislatively, in March 2021, Spain amended the Labor Law, which treated fooddelivery workers as employees and promoted their inclusion in the contract framework, in a bid to realize that they can enjoy corresponding social security as ordinary workers. Likewise, the European Commission released relevant legislative proposals in 2021, provided solutions to possible labor disputes, and planned to establish a regulatory framework that covered EU member states by the end of 2021. Yet, in this regard, the introduction of relevant laws and regulations plays a limited role, which means an arduous task to undertake. Besides, various countries take uneven measures in preferentially protecting platform employees. In November 2020, State of California of the United States passed Proposition 22 thanks to the heavy investment from large corporations. On the identity of platform workers, Proposition 22 replaced Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) that took effect at the beginning of 2020 and made delivery workers and platform drivers lose their original employee status and become independent contractors.

8.4.3 The Rights and Interests of Network Users Are Damaged and the Accountability of Platform Tort Is Gradually Conducted In the past year, a new trend appeared in the development of the accountability of platform tort. In February 2021, the U.S. Senate proposed Secure Technology Act. As an amendment to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, Secure Technology Act mainly contains: deleting the immunities of platforms in the case of payments, adding the burden of proof of cyber platforms, platforms bearing more civil liabilities in some cases, and allowing victims to file lawsuits against platforms in the case of being tailed or harassed. Compared with original Section 230, the

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new Act sets the boundaries of liability immunity and adds the excluded objects of immunity. In March 2021, State of Oklahoma of the United States approved Oklahoma Computer Data Privacy Act, which required that platforms shall not discriminate against consumers due to the exercise of their rights, and that the collection of consumer information must be authorized in a clear and obvious manner, on the premise of not damaging or hindering their decision-making. The Act exempted some small enterprises from their obligations to comply with the Act. Simultaneously, Commonwealth of Virginia of the United States adopted Consumer Data Protection Act, which authorized the attorney-general of Commonwealth of Virginia to take charge of implementing the Act and investigating and punishing violations. However, the Act did not warrant private right of action. In line with Consumer Data Protection Act, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned enterprises from using biased AI technologies. In May 2021, the U.S. Senate presented Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act, which gave users greater data control rights and stipulated that platforms shall notify users within 72 h in case of website-data leakage. Since Facebook conducted face recognition and collected and stored relevant data without consent, State of Illinois of the United States reached a settlement agreement with Facebook in 2021. Accordingly, Facebook bore a series of responsibilities, including closing the default setting of face recognition and deleting the existent and stored face templates unless obtaining additional explicit consent. In December 2020, the European Union published Digital Services Act (Draft). In terms of platform liability, the Act sets greater transparency as well as accountability standards in controlling content and advertisement by establishing a horizontal rule mechanism. The Act stipulates that platforms have the obligation to assess system risks and develop risk-management tools and measures, so as to advance service integrity. As provided, any users have the right to mark illegal content of platforms and to raise objections to platforms in a direct way or via non-judicial settlement mechanisms. If the rights and interests of users are damaged, users can launch class action against platforms. In this way, relief-in-the-form-money becomes the preferred means of users and the best way to force platforms to abide by laws.

8.5 Emerging Technologies Empower Network Industry, with Security Measures Timely Following up The emergence and application of emerging technologies like face recognition, algorithm, blockchain and digital currency often coexist with legislation and regulation. The legislation on biometric information continuously improves and becomes more rigorous, which prevents potential risks of information abuse. In response to privacy infringement that arises from the frequent use of algorithmic technology, two systems take shape, i.e. data-processing-evaluation system and algorithmaccountability system represented by the European Union and the United States

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respectively. Besides, algorithm governance matures. As an outcome of digital economy, blockchain technology and digital currency become a hot topic in global cooperation and regulation.

8.5.1 Faced with the Misuse of Biometric Information, the Legislation on Information Protection Makes Positive Response In 2020, the United States issued National Biometric Information Privacy Act, which stipulated that relevant organizations must obtain personal consent before collecting or exposing biometric information. Subsequently, other states in the United States have promulgated more general biometric data protection laws that involve the collection, processing and use of personal biometric data. The European Union, a region with stringent biometric-information-protection regulations, enacts General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which protects the use of personal biometric information in the workplace to a certain degree. For example, Portugal, an EU member state, prohibits the establishment of databases on personal biometric information, which plays a prominent role in face-recognition camera, workplace protection and special legal protection. The Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China rules that personal information of natural persons is protected by law. Personal information denotes all kinds of information of specific natural persons recorded in electronic or other ways that can be identified independently or in combination with other information, including the name, date of birth, ID card number, biometric information, address, telephone number, e-mail, health condition and whereabouts information of natural persons.

8.5.2 Algorithm Push Endangers Privacy and Algorithm-Governance System Gradually Improves Algorithmic technology is widely used in all aspects of social life, and the risks to citizens’ privacy and other personal rights are noteworthy. For example, credit evaluation algorithm closes the door on the vulnerable groups when they apply for loans. The hierarchic treatment and accurate portrait of people by algorithm will aggravate economic, cultural and social isolation and discrimination. Sexual discrimination is disclosed in the algorithm of LinkedIn, an American employment platform, where the number of high-paid jobs recommended to women is only one tenth of that of men. A survey conducted by American non-governmental organizations reveals that COMPAS sentencing-assistance algorithm widely used in various states has systematic discrimination against blacks.

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The European Union specially establishes a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). In case that new technologies are used to process data, if the nature, scope, content and purpose of the processing may cause high risks to the rights and liberties of natural persons, data controllers shall assess the impact of data processing on personal data protection, so as to identify and reduce the risk of privacy leakage in advance. Data controllers who fail to fully assess data processing will be viewed as against General Data Protection Regulation and fined 2% of annual global turnover of their organizations or 10 million euros (subject to higher level). Unlike EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Algorithmic Accountability Act and Smartwatch Data Act of the United States prohibit enterprises from transferring or selling health information from personal consumer devices (e.g. wearable devices and trackers) without the informed consent of consumers.

8.5.3 The Application of Blockchain Enlarges and Industrial Regulatory System Takes Effect Global blockchain regulations attain remarkable progress. By May 2021, various countries in the world had launched 238 policies in the field of blockchain. Industrial development, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) and financial supervision were central issues, accounting for 33%, 20% and 17% respectively. Regions that issue special laws and regulations focus on regulatory suggestions and precedents in giving guidance or interpretation, and tend to update existing laws and regulations or formulate new ones. In regulatory areas, the number of policies concerning the operation, issuance and trading of digital assets is the largest. Regulatory policies that take traditional policies into account basically center on anti-money laundering and taxation. Presently, more countries in the world have recognized the value of blockchain in the era of digital economy and enhanced the support for blockchain technology. As a major means to foster digital economic growth, blockchain quickly develops and widely influences all areas of real economy. In 2021, innovative application and policy support remained an important driving force for the development of blockchain. The coordinated development of new technologies like blockchain, 5G, AI and IoT facilitates industrial development.

Chapter 9

International Cyberspace Governance

9.1 Outline In 2021, the normalization of the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic affected global cyberspace in an all-round and far-reaching way. For a country, its digital development level plays a decisive role in shaping its advantages in international competition. In terms of digital transformation, many countries and regions put these issues at the top of the agenda, i.e. developing digital economy, ensuring cybersecurity, building digital government, cultivating digital skills and improving digital governance. International order in cyberspace is reshaped fast, and the debate on international rules in cyberspace is considered the most active emerging field. The U.N. Information Security Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) and Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) make phased progress in twin-track negotiation. The debate on digital economy, data security, platform governance, technology governance, ICT supply-chain security and other issues continues to heat up. Antitrust governance against large-scale digital platforms enters the “fast lane”, and the demand for relevant international rules keeps growing. Noticeably, the trend of fragmentation in cyberspace continues, and the absence of international rules causes more prominent problems. With absolute advantages in cyberspace, the United States incessantly dominates international policies with domestic politics and adopts exclusive policies to split cyberspace. The European Union strengthens strategic autonomy in cyberspace. Against the backdrop of the competition among great powers, geopolitics breeds new digital divide, which aggravates the imbalance of world Internet development. Moreover, public resources in global cyberspace becomes increasingly scarce and uneven. China upholds the principles of “Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation”, advances the idea of “a community with a shared future in cyberspace” ideologically and practically, and gradually benefits neighboring countries. The idea of cyber sovereignty becomes the consensus of international community. Many countries proactively explore cyber sovereignty theoretically and © Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, World Internet Development Report 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7_9

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practically. As international landscape becomes increasingly complex, green digital cooperation provides new opportunities for international cyberspace governance. Actors like governments, international organizations, enterprises, social organizations and individual citizens have an active part in green digital cooperation and seek new paths for building “a community with a shared future in cyberspace”.

9.2 Main Features of Annual International Cyberspace Governance The normalization of the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic deeply tests the governance capacity of different parties. In various countries, the demand for digital development and digital governance increases significantly. In particular, developing countries display a strong momentum of digital transformation. Meanwhile, cyberspace is glutted with unilateralism and bullying. With challenges to formulate international rules in cyberspace and build cyberspace governance systems, trust mechanism in cyberspace urgently needs to be established and improved.

9.2.1 Under the Normalization of Pandemic Prevention and Control, the Demand for Digital Development and Governance Surges New-round information revolution results in radical changes in social productivity and relation of production, which comprehensively enters and profoundly affects human social life. Various countries in the world realize the importance of key technological innovation in the field of information, vie for a dominant position in technological innovation, and vigorously promote the development of digital technology and industry, so as to boost economic recovery. The United States, the European Union, Japan, Israel and other countries and regions increase investment in the R&D of AI and quantum technology, accelerate the integration of “production, university and research”, and improve the efficiency of technological R&D. Semiconductor industry shows a trend of alliance. The United States, South Korea, Japan and other countries strengthen the strategic design of semiconductor industry and enhance chipmanufacturing capacity by establishing industrial alliances. India, Brazil, Kenya and other developing countries quicken the test, experiment and service of 5G technology. ASEAN countries expedite digital transformation, with new business forms like e-commerce and digital trading maintaining a strong momentum. Simultaneously, the potential risks of global cybersecurity are growing, as are the scale and intensity of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. Major countries in the world continuously strengthen cybersecurity capacity. With the further expansion of large-scale digital platforms, the phenomenon of platform monopoly poses

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a challenge to social order, national order and even global order, arousing wide concern among governments. A consensus is gradually reached in the regulation of digital platforms. Governments of the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries and regions successively optimize regulatory legislation, stage antitrust investigations, and take measures to curb digital-platform monopoly. In terms of governance subject, the role and function of government in cyberspace governance are continuously intensified. In the meantime, international organizations and technological communities, e.g. the United Nations and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), take untiring efforts to address governance issues. The participation degree of non-state actors like Internet enterprises and non-governmental organizations in governance constantly expands.

9.2.2 Geopolitics Catalyzes and Enlarges New Digital Divide Traditional digital divide comes from objective digital differences among countries; yet, new digital divide arises from non-technological factors, man-made political kidnapping and digital barriers. Some countries attempt to split cyberspace and create distrust, which prevents other countries from enjoying the achievements in digital innovation and inclusive development and reduces the opportunities for digital transformation and mutual assistance among countries in conflicts and disputes. Competition among powers in cyberspace intensifies, unilateralism and protectionism continue to rage, and data-security issues become increasingly politicized. The United States and other countries intentionally create digital barriers, restrict or prohibit foreign digital hardware equipment and software service providers from doing business in domestic markets, and threaten to block so-called “unsafe” enterprises of foreign countries without conclusive evidence. These actions impede international cooperation in digital area conducted among countries based on mutual trust, deepen political misunderstanding among countries, restrict the inclusive development of informatization, create new digital divide, further plunge cyberspace into a state of instability and uncertainty, and aggravate the crisis of fragmentation. Old and new digital divides coalesce and produce a compounding effect, which worsens the imbalance of global digital development. Particularly, citizens in developing countries can hardly enjoy the dividends from digital development. In the report Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures 2020, International Telecommunication Union stressed that in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the imbalance of digital development between developed and developing countries became increasingly prominent. Notably, the slowdown of infrastructure construction and the lack of affordable prices were major obstacles to citizens’ fair participation in digital society.1 In the new era, governance, trust, peace and development complement each other and form an organic ensemble, which functions as an important means to build the Internet, common home of human. As important actors in cyberspace, various 1

ITU: Measuring digital development: Facts and Figs. 2020.

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governments should make more active, comprehensive, coordinated and inclusive policies, explore the establishment of trust mechanism in cyberspace, safeguard fairness and justice, address the dilemma of digital divide in an effective way, and share digital dividend.

9.2.3 Technological Politicization Threatens Supply-Chain Security Currently, international community attaches great importance to the security governance of the ICT supply chain. Actors like governments, international organizations, technological communities and industrial organizations actively put forward governance plans and paths. More countries acknowledge that the security of the ICT supply chain is bound to national security. The review of supply-chain security is tightened up, and more specific policies are introduced to strengthen the risk management of supply chains and improve the resilience, diversity and security of supply chains. For example, the Biden Administration released Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains, instructing federal agencies to review the security risks of supply chains in various industries (including information technology),2 establish departments like “Supply Chain Trade Action Group”, and adopt an all-round strategy to fortify the resilience of American supply chains. Singapore initiates SG Cyber Safe Trustmark Program to standardize corporate cybersecurity capability certification. Australian Cyber Security Centre published Guideline on Identifying and Managing Supply Chain Risks. The United Nations makes continuous efforts to promote the rules on the security of the IT supply chain. In May 2021, the U.N. Information Security Group of Governmental Experts formed a final report, calling on various countries to take reasonable measures to ensure the integrity of supply chains. The report embraced important propositions in China’s Global Initiative on Data Security and China-League of Arab States Cooperation Initiative on Data Security, including promoting the openness, integrity, security and stability of global ITproduct supply chains, advocating the establishment of comprehensive, transparent, objective and fair supply-chain security-risk assessment mechanisms in various countries, and forging global uniform rules and standards. Academia, business circles and industrial associations actively offer suggestions and ideas to lower security risks of supply chain. For example, the U.S. Software Alliance released the white paper Building a More Effective Strategy for ICT Supply Chain Security, calling on the U.S. government to reduce supply chain risks and boost the trust and security in the global ICT supply chain.3 EastWest Institute, working with Kenyan Information 2

The official website of the White House: Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains, February 24, 2021, https://www.whitehouse. gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/24/executiveorder-on-americas-supply-chains/. 3 Material Source: Building a More Effective Strategy for ICT Supply Chain Security, https://www. bsa.org/files/policy-filings/02162021supplychainsecurity.pdf.

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and Communications Technologies Authority and Kaspersky Lab, hosted the 15th United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Seminar, which focused on the security and transparency of the ICT supply chain.4 The security governance of the ICT supply chain per se means an objective and pure technological issue. However, some countries attach many geopolitical considerations to the issue of technological risks, whose politicized measures are highly controversial. For example, the United States continues to restrict Huawei’s 5G technology even though Huawei has passed the review of German security agencies which proves that Huawei’s equipment has no security problems. The United Kingdom launches Telecommunications (Security) Act, which explicitly prohibits Huawei from participating in British 5G mobile networks. On the premise of fairness, impartiality and non-discrimination, international community should jointly investigate and formulate international norms for safeguarding ICT supply chain security via multilateral platforms with universal participation of all parties, and take appropriate measures to improve the security and controllability of products and services.

9.2.4 Green Digital Cooperation Invigorates International Cyberspace Governance As a significant issue, how to address climate change arouses in-depth discussion among various parties. Countries and regions like the United States, China, Japan and the European Union have successively introduced carbon neutrality policies and goals, and carbon neutrality has become a global trend. Reaching consensus on addressing climate crisis, China and the United States published China-U.S. Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis in April 2021. China and the European Union propose to build China-EU Green Partnership and China-EU Digital Cooperation Partnership. Both sides have taken active actions in green digital development. China energetically promotes the construction of green data centers and proposes to accelerate the R&D and application of energy-saving and low-carbon technologies to reduce the energy consumption of data centers. In “Digital Day 2021”, the European Union requested its member states to sign commitments on data, start-ups and EU’s green and digital transformation. Besides, enterprises play an active role in achieving green digital development. 26 major European telecom operators like Deutsche Telekom (Germany) and Telefónica (Spain) organize the European Green Digital Coalition, which promises to invest in the development and deployment of more energy-saving and material-saving digital technologies and services, and to step up efforts to measure the impact of digital technologies on the environment. Microsoft, Amazon and other corporations agree that they will realize the 100%-use of renewable energy by 2025. Chinese corporations like Huawei and Tencent also 4

Material Source: https://www.eastwest.ngo/idea/ewi-hosts-virtual-un-igf-workshop-ict-supplychain-security.

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launch relevant carbon neutrality plans to reduce carbon emissions in smart energy, smart agriculture and smart travel. With respect to the governance of public issues in cyberspace, international organizations, governments, enterprises, individuals and other actors bear the responsibility and obligation to participate in governance. They need to play their respective roles in building “a community with a shared future in cyberspace” and jointly solving global governance deficit.

9.3 New Progress in International Cyberspace Governance As new risks, problems and challenges continuously emerge in cyberspace, the topic of international cyberspace governance steadily expands. The discussion on international norms in cyberspace continues to advance, and various entities actively explore governance in digital currency, data security, platform supervision and AI, with the importance of international cooperation becoming increasingly prominent.

9.3.1 The Formulation of International Rules in Cyberspace Continues to Advance As an important platform for the discussion of cyberspace rules, the United Nations has played a crucial role. The U.N. Information Security Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) and Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) have released final reports respectively. In March 2021, the final report of OEWG reaffirmed the applicability of international law, especially Charter of the United Nations, in cyberspace, underscoring that the principles of international law, e.g. national sovereignty, sovereignty equality, non-interference in internal affairs and peaceful settlement of international disputes, are applicable to cyberspace. From 2021 to 2025, the U.N. OEWG will continue to discuss issues such as information security, technology security and use and national codes of conduct, and submit reports to the United Nations General Assembly.5 In May 2021, the final report of the U.N. GGE put forward 11 suggestions on national codes of conduct in cyberspace, which covered the peaceful use of ICT, state responsibility, ICT service-supply-chain security, international cooperation in cyberspace and capacity building.6 Regrettably, no consensus has been reached among various parties on the applicability of international humanitarian law, state responsibility, the prohibition or threat of use of force and the right of self-defense in cyberspace. Simultaneously, Germany, Israel, Japan and other countries publish 5

Material Source: https://front.un-arm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Final-report-A-AC.2902021-CRP.2.pdf. 6 Material Source: Report of the Group of Governmental Experts on Advancing responsible State behaviour in cyberspace in the context of international security, https://front.un-arm.org/wp-con tent/uploads/2021/06/final-report-2019–2021-gge-1-advance-copy.pdf.

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position papers on the applicability of international law in cyberspace, and reassert their rules and positions in cyberspace. In the face of increasing cybersecurity threats, in June 2021, the United Nations Security Council held the first public meeting on cybersecurity. Representatives of 15 members of the United Nations Security Council emphasized that cyberspace was bound by international law, including Charter of the United Nations and the principle of national sovereignty, and called for cooperation to address cybersecurity threats and challenges.7 In combating cybercrimes, in April 2021, the U.N. Cybercrime Group of Governmental Experts organized the seventh meeting to discuss the legislative framework of cybercrime, criminalization, law-enforcement and investigation, electronic evidence and criminal judicature, international cooperation and crime prevention. In May 2021, the United Nations officially announced that it would start the negotiation of The United Nations Convention Against Cybercrime in January 2022 and establish an ad hoc committee to draft and negotiate the Convention. However, there are divergences on the role of the ad hoc committee and a panel of governmental experts on cybercrime as well as the necessity to formulate a new convention. Additionally, non-state actors enthusiastically participate in the formulation of international rules in cyberspace. At the beginning of 2021, NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence announced the official launch of the compilation of Tallinn Manual 3.0. It would organize an international expert group to further discuss how to apply international law to cyberspace and formulate the latest manual guide.

9.3.2 Global Digital Currency Accelerates Twin-Track Development Global digital currency is developing rapidly in two directions. The research and deployment of legal digital currency by many central banks are moving into the “fast lane”, with private cryptocurrencies continuously expanding. In August 2020, Bank for International Settlements released the report The Rise of Central Bank Digital Currency: Drivers, Methods and Technologies, which disclosed that against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world, some countries and regions accelerated the development of digital currency, and that at least 36 central banks in the world issued retail or wholesale central bank digital currency. Countries and regions like China, the United States, the European Union, Russia and Japan have quickened the research or testing of central bank digital currencies. In terms of the strategic considerations of developed countries and emerging countries on legal digital currency, the former foregrounds the protection of personal privacy, system security as well as the stability of domestic financial systems, while the latter hopes to enhance the role of finance in national economic development, improve payment 7

Material Source: ‘Explosive’ Growth of Digital Technologies Creating New Potential for Conflict, Disarmament Chief Tells Security Council in First-Ever Debate on Cyberthreats | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sc14563.doc.htm.

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efficiency, increase liquidity and enhance national currency sovereignty via digital currency.8 Besides, various countries take diverse attitudes and positions on the regulation of private cryptocurrency. For some countries, the use of private cryptocurrency for money laundering, fraud and other criminal acts enlarges risks. South Korean government launches special campaign against crimes in cryptocurrency. The United States, India, Türkiye and other countries successively tighten the grip on the regulation of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Mexico, Paraguay, El Salvador and other American countries actively promote the legitimation of Bitcoin based on their national conditions.

9.3.3 Digital Tax Administration Forms a Trend The Digital Tax Proposal of the European Union, “Two-Pillar Solution” of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and “Bilateral Tax Agreement Model” of the United Nations serve as the most important rules and models for global digital tax administration. In August 2020, the United Nations revised The United Nations Model Double Taxation Convention between Developed and Developing Countries, which added a digital tax clause and allowed member states to reach consensus on digital tax administration via bilateral-tax-agreement negotiations. In June 2021, Group of Seven (G7) came to an agreement on international tax reform of the minimum corporate tax rate. The agreement covers two aspects. Firstly, in addition to paying taxes in the location of the headquarters, transnational corporations pay taxes in a reasonable way in the market countries. Secondly, transnational corporations need to pay taxes at the lowest global corporate tax rate, i.e. 15%. Essentially, there is a convergence between G7’s “International Tax Reform Agreement” and OECD’s “Two-Pillar Solution”.9 As inclusive frameworks, they help various parties to reach a consensus on OECD’s digital tax solution. At the national level, more countries begin to design and execute unilateral tax measures. By April 2021, 46 countries had started or planned to levy direct digital taxes. To be specific, 22 countries, including Austria, Costa Rica, France and Greece, had passed laws and levied digital service taxes. 10 countries, including Canada, Denmark and Egypt, had issued relevant announcements and implementation intentions.10

8

Wang Wen & Wang Yushu: “Digital Currency Landscape against the Background of ‘Double Circulation’”. Globe, 2021 (2). 9 Liang Lili & Liu Youdi: “OECD: Hoping to Reach a Digital Economy Tax Agreement in the Middle of the Year”. China Taxation News, February 9, 2021. 10 Zhou Nianli & Wang Da: “The Impact, Challenges and Suggestions Concerning Digital Tax”, https://www.tisi.org/.

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9.3.4 Data Governance Is Actively Promoted Against the background of the wave of digital economy, data governance receives widespread attention in the world and becomes a key issue of international cyberspace governance. In multi-party governance, there is a new trend that features stressing data protection, strengthening the design of legal systems and promoting data sharing and cooperation. The 70th Meeting of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) made headway in formulating new policies for the protection and management of domain-name-registration data, which ensured the accuracy and legality of domain-name-registration data. In 2021, China successively promulgated The Data Security Law of the People’s Republic of China, The Protection of Personal Information Law of the People’s Republic of China and other laws and regulations to constantly optimize the construction of data-governance legal systems. In November 2020, the State of California of the United States enacted The Amendment to California Consumer Privacy Act. In January 2021, the Council of the European Union issued newly-revised E-Privacy Regulation (Draft), which further implemented the provisions on data protection in General Data Protection Regulation and strengthened the protection of users’ personal information as well as rights and interests. Canada, New Zealand, South Korea and other countries introduce their privacy laws and data-protection laws ditto. Besides, the United States, the European Union, Japan and other developed countries and regions carve a niche in cooperation in crossborder data flow and data sharing, with an attempt to create a “model” of rules. As an emerging economy, ASEAN also proposes to coordinate national policies to advance cross-border data flow and boost the development of regional digital integration. In November 2020, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was formally signed, which stipulated the rules for cross-border data transmission and prevented governments of member countries from imposing various restrictions on digital trade, including the requirement for data localized storage. RCEP also regulated the digitization of trade-related documents and materials, the use of electronic signatures, electronic authentication, spam and other fields, aiming to promote crossborder trade and protect the security of consumers’ personal information in RCEP territory.

9.3.5 Platform Governance Continuously Deepens In 2021, international community stepped up platform governance. Antitrust governance against platforms as well as combating terrorism, extremist speech and false information became the consensus of more countries. Algorithm governance also played an important part in strengthening platform governance in various countries. Various countries consolidate antitrust governance against platforms. The United States, China, the European Union, Germany, Australia and other countries and regions launch antitrust investigations on large Internet corporations. The European

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Union focuses on protecting user privacy, regulating online advertising’s obligations and responsibilities, and cracking down on unfair commercial behaviors of large platforms, with an attempt to clarify the responsibilities and positions of platforms in line with Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. Australia issues News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, which requires large Internet corporations like Facebook and Google to pay for local news and publishing organizations to solve the problem of the redistribution of profits between digital enterprises and traditional news media. Various countries actively conduct content governance. The powerful publicopinion manipulation and mobilization capacity of social media evokes the vigilance of governments in the world, and content governance evolves from attacking content per se into algorithm governance. In 2021, the United States, which flaunted “Internet freedom”, joined Christchurch Call and supported Internet platforms to combat extremist and terrorist speeches. Members of Congress of the United States proposed Algorithmic Justice and Online Platform Transparency Bill of 2021, which demanded prohibiting harmful algorithms, improving the transparency and audit ability of platform content, and conducting inter-governmental investigations on discriminatory algorithmic processes. The European Union published Guideline on Strengthening EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation, which required efforts to combat information manipulation and improve the transparency of platforms. Russia decelerated the operation speed of Twitter to punish it for failing to delete illegal information timely. Germany revised the Network Enforcement Act (Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, NetzDG) to strengthen the protection of users’ rights and combat hate speech on Internet. Simultaneously, large Internet platforms bolstered content governance. Google, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter released codes of conduct against false information to curb the dissemination of false information.

9.3.6 AI Governance Arouses Wide Attention With the robust rise of new-generation AI technology in the world, how to realize effective AI governance in the wave of new technological revolution and ensure its sustainable and healthy development becomes an important topic of wide concern in international community. Since March 2021, Czech Republic has hosted a series of online meetings with the theme of “International Conference on the Governance of Artificial Intelligence” (ICGAI) in its capital Prague, in which multi-parties like governments, enterprises, international organizations and research institutions participated, discussing the inclusiveness of AI and the establishment of a comprehensive AI governance framework. Practically, all parties progress steadily in AI governance norms. In the governance of application risks, the European Union publishes the legal framework for AI regulation, which categorizes AI systems into four types (i.e. unacceptable risks, high risks, limited risks and extremely low risks) and formulates corresponding restrictive policies according to different risk levels. Ethically, the United Nations speeds up

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the construction of global AI ethics. In January 2021, the United Nations published an article, calling on all countries in the world to be vigilant against the negative consequences of using AI technologies, such as bias, racism and false information.11 In July 2021, representatives of UNESCO member states reached consensus on Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (Draft). After being adopted at UNESCO General Assembly in November 2021, it would be the first document on global AI ethical codes. In industrial standards, some countries progressively introduce relevant technological guidelines to regulate the development of AI industry. In January 2021, Korean Intellectual Property Office released a review guide on AI, which provided specific guidance for the description and creativity requirements of different types of AI inventions, in addition to corresponding qualification requirements for computerrelated inventions. In April 2021, the People’s Bank of China issued Evaluation Specification of Artificial Intelligence Algorithm in Financial Application. To address potential risks and problems in the current application of AI technology, such as algorithm black box, algorithm homogeneity and model defect, the Specification established an algorithmic evaluation framework for AI financial application, systematically raised basic requirements, evaluation methods and judgment criteria in terms of security, interpretability, accuracy and performance, and provided guidance for financial institutions to strengthen the risk management of AI-algorithm applications.

9.3.7 Various Parties Strive to Bridge the Digital Divide Digital divide aggravates the imbalance in global development. How to effectively bridge the digital divide poses an important and urgent task or topic to international community. In July 2021, the Annual APEC Economic Leader’s Meeting was convened, and a joint statement was published, which reached a consensus on promoting data flow and strengthening the trust and cooperation between consumers and businesses in digital transactions. The meeting stated that it would support strengthening digital-knowledge education and upgrading digital skills, take measures to further digital transformation and bridge digital divide, and promote building an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific Community.12 In July 2020, International Telecommunication Union organized the first high-level policy dialogue in World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Under the theme of “bridging the digital divide”, governmental departments, business circles, academic institutions and other parties of WSIS member states shared their practical exploration and experience in narrowing digital divide. The World Bank provides financial assistance for the digital construction in developing countries and marginal areas. In May 2021, the World Bank announced an investment of 875 million U.S. dollars

11 12

Material Source: https://news.un.org/zh/story/2021/01/1075032. Material Source: https://www.apec.org/Meeting-Papers/Leaders-Declarations/2021/2021_ILR.

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to International Development Association (IDA) to support Tanzania’s socioeconomic development. In Particular, 150 million U.S. dollars would be used to promote Tanzania’s digital transformation, focusing on building digital infrastructure and digital ecosystem and providing digital services, so as to gradually raise local digital level. In June 2021, the World Bank declared that it would provide 200 million U.S. dollars to Uganda to fund it in expanding the number of high-speed Internet connections, improving the efficiency of digital public services and enhancing digital inclusiveness. At the national level, China actively provides paths and plans to bridge global digital divide. In June 2021, China held “APEC Workshop on Inclusive Digital Society: Alleviating Poverty and Improving Living Standards Through Increased Economic Growth”. APEC member economies like Chile, Malaysia, Mexico and New Zealand as well as relevant international organizations like World Economic Forum attended. At the Workshop, China proposed to give full play to the advantages of digital technologies, seek digital inclusive development and launch digital poverty-alleviation cooperation.

9.4 Cyberspace Governance in Some Representative Countries and Regions Over the past year, countries with varying development levels have adopted policies to support innovation and digital transformation to elevate domestic digital levels. The United States, the European Union and other developed countries and regions ardently forged leading advantages in international competition in cyberspace, increased their investment in the R&D of digital technology, optimized legislation and regulation, and improved governance capacity. Digital economy played an increasingly prominent role in enhancing economic resilience. Developing countries became more enthusiastic and voluntary in conducting digital economic cooperation, which provided strong momentum for international cooperation in cyberspace. China actively participated in the process of international cyberspace governance. Entities like governments, enterprises, technological communities and industrial organizations played a part in and contributed to the reform of global governance systems in cyberspace, within the framework of the United Nations as well as bilateral or multilateral mechanisms.

9.4.1 China Chinese government, enterprises, technological communities, industrial organizations and other entities take the initiative in exploring the future development of international cyberspace governance and endeavor to actualize the vision of peace, security, openness, cooperation and order in cyberspace. In November 2020, Chinese

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President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to World Internet Conference · Internet Development Forum, stressing that: “China stands ready to work with international community to seize the historical opportunity of information revolution, cultivate new momentum for innovation and development, create new landscape of digital cooperation, establish new pattern of cybersecurity, build ‘a community with a shared future in cyberspace’, and join hands to create a better future for mankind.” This expressed again China’s deep thought on the direction of international cyberspace governance. The Organizing Committee of World Internet Conference released Jointly Build a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace, calling on governments, international organizations, Internet enterprises, technological communities, social organizations and individual citizens in various countries to adhere to global governance vision of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, so as to build cyberspace into a development community, a security community, a responsibility community and an interest community that would benefit all mankind. Think tanks like Wuhan University, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations and Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences jointly published Cyber Sovereignty: Theory and Practice 2.0, which enriched the idea of cyber sovereignty. China unswervingly advocates and supports the dominant role of the United Nations in formulating international rules in cyberspace. In 2021, China successively participated in the meetings and consultations of the U.N. Information Security OpenEnded Working Group and Group of Governmental Experts. The rules on ICT service supply-chain security that China proposed were recognized, accepted and included in relevant consensus reports. In June 2021, China attended the public meeting on cybersecurity hosted by the United Nations Security Council. China asserted that various countries should safeguard peace to promote security and prevent cyberspace from turning to new battlefield, that various countries should strength communication and cooperation to promote security and create a good environment in cyberspace, that various countries should fortify governance to promote security and deepen fairness and justice in cyberspace, and that various countries should boost inclusive development to promote security and achieve common prosperity in cyberspace. China readily partakes in bilateral or multilateral exchanges and cooperation and promotes mutual benefit and inclusiveness in cyberspace. In November 2020, the 23rd China-ASEAN Summit (10 + 1) was held via video conference, in which Initiative on Building China-ASEAN Partnership on Digital Economy was released. The two sides agreed to seize digital opportunities, build a digital-economy partnership featuring mutual trust and benefit, inclusiveness, innovation and win–win relationship, and strengthen the cooperation in the fields of pandemic prevention with digital technology, digital infrastructure, industrial digital transformation, smart city, cyberspace and cybersecurity. China actively conducts exchanges and cooperation with the European Union, League of Arab States, Russia, Africa and other countries and regions. In September 2020, China-EU High-Level Dialogue in the Digital Area was staged. Centering on strengthening the cooperation in the digital area, China and the European Union earnestly implement important consensus that Chinese and

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EU leaders have reached, and discuss issues like standards for communications technology and AI in a practical and constructive manner. In March 2021, China and League of Arab States jointly released China-League of Arab States Cooperation Initiative on Data Security, which highlighted the high-degree consensus between the two sides in the field of digital governance. In June 2021, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the signing of China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, China and Russia published a joint statement. The two sides reiterated that they would consolidate bilateral and multilateral cooperation in international information security and continuously promote the construction of a global international information security system under the principles of preventing conflicts in information space and encouraging the peaceful use of information technology. In August 2021, China-Africa Internet Development and Cooperation Forum was held via video links. Representatives of relevant Chinese institutions, think tanks and enterprises and the counterparts from 14 African countries and African Union Commission attended the forum, who carried out in-depth exchanges on issues such as sharing digital-technology dividend and jointly safeguarding cybersecurity. At the opening ceremony of the forum, China proposed Initiative on China-Africa Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace, calling on Chinese and African governments, Internet enterprises, technological communities, social organizations and individual citizens to join hands to build a closer community with a shared future in cyberspace.

9.4.2 The United States The United States remains dominant in utilizing key resources and making rules in cyberspace. After the Biden administration was in the saddle, internally, the United States reshaped domestic manufacturing and innovation capabilities, laid stress on cybersecurity, strengthened top-level design for cyberspace strategy and supplychain security, and promoted cooperation between government and private sectors. Externally, the United States adopted a strategy that combined diplomacy and military affairs, developed America-centered multilateral alliances, and took multiple measures to enhance America’s strength in cyberspace. (1) Optimizing institutional setup and augmenting linkage and coordination. The U.S. Department of State establishes the Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies to re-organize and allocate resources for the U.S. diplomatic work in the fields of the securities of cyberspace and emerging technologies. The White House newly sets up Office of the National Cyber Director, which plays the role of “liaison hub” in promoting cross-departmental coordination and public–private collaboration. Office of Science and Technology Policy of the White House organizes National AI Initiative Office, in charge

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of implementing national AI strategies of the United States. Federal Communications Commission forms the Broadband Data Task Force to quicken and improve the collection of broadband data. (2) Increasing investment in digital technology and infrastructure and maintaining the leading position in industrial chains. U.S. President Biden proposes a largescale infrastructure construction and employment program, with a total amount of 2.25 trillion U.S. dollars, covering infrastructure and network construction, manufacturing, education, scientific research and employment promotion. In order to stimulate the semiconductor industry, Biden launches an incentive plan for semiconductor industry with an investment of 50 billion U.S. dollars. The United States initiates Semiconductors in America Coalition with dozens of chip manufacturers in the world and signs semiconductor agreements with Japan and South Korea to further consolidate its leading position in the global semiconductor industrial chain. (3) Ameliorating emergency-response mechanism and safeguarding cybersecurity. In January 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued the latest rules of Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain. In February 2021, the U.S. National Security Agency released Embracing a Zero Trust Security Model, a zero trust guide, which aimed to ensure the security of key networks and sensitive data within major federal agencies. In May 2021, after the largest oil pipeline operator in the United States was compelled to suspend its operation because of the cyberattack organized by hackers, the Biden administration signed Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, which required efforts to standardize and update cybersecurity standards of commercial software, and ordered to establish Cyber Safety Review Board and strengthen departmental information sharing, so as to improve the federal capacity in ensuring cybersecurity.13 (4) Reinforcing alliance and cooperation and continuing the containment policy to suppress competitors. The Biden administration actively revamps the relations with its allies, ideologizes multilateralism, adopts the strategy of highlighting group politics and values alliance, and advances the construction of an exclusive technology-territory that conforms to the interests of the United States. Besides, the Biden administration proposes United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, which intends to intensify strategic competition with China, restrict the flow of American technologies and products to Huawei and other Chinese corporations, and adopt an exclusive strategy against the so-called “institutional competitors” including China in the digital area. In June 2021, the United States shut down more than 30 Iranian media websites by dint of its control over toplevel domain names. These acts of digital hegemony accelerate the division and fragmentation of cyberspace.

13

Material Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/05/12/ fact-sheet-president-signs-executive-order-charting-new-course-to-improve-the-nations-cybersecu rity-and-protect-federal-government-networks/.

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9.4.3 Russia Russia improves regulatory legislation, optimizes the strategic layout of scientific and technological innovation and boosts digital economy. Russia plays an active role in participating in international cyberspace governance and puts forward “Russian Plan” to maintain international information security. (1) Tightening up on data governance and social media regulation. In February 2021, Russian President Putin signed The Federal Administrative Crime Law to increase the punishment for violations of data-processing regulations. In March 2021, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) announced that as Twitter failed to comply with relevant laws and regulations in Russia to delete or screen illegal content concerning drug abuse, child pornography and inciting minors to commit suicide, Russia decelerated the service speed for Twitter. The Roskomnadzor said that within one month of the speed limit on Twitter, Twitter had deleted around 2,000 tweets involving illegal content.14 (2) Attaching great importance to the development of digital economy and scientific and technological innovation. In September 2020, Russia issued The Roadmap for the Development of Quantum Communication in Russian Federation, which planned to implement more than 120 measures and projects by 2021 to accelerate the development of quantum communication, IoT and other technologies. In April 2021, the Central Bank of Russia stated that it would launch digital ruble prototype by the end of 2021 and plan to test it in the first quarter of 2022. According to relevant planning and deployment, the Central Bank of Russia would draft necessary regulatory norms in 2022, integrate the Central Bank’s digital currency into Russian financial system, and pilot digital ruble prototype with other banks and financial institutions. (3) Actively putting forward “Russian Plan” for the rules in international cyberspace governance. In April 2021, Putin officially signed The Basic Principles of State Policy in International Information Security. The document clarified Russia’s basic views on the nature of international information security as well as Russia’s policies and goals. It also defined international information security as the state of global information space that maintains international peace, security and stability on the basis of universally-recognized principles and norms of international law and subject to equal partnership. The document aimed to publicize Russia’s views and initiatives on establishing international information security guarantee systems, building international legal mechanisms for preventing and resolving conflicts among countries in global information space, and organizing and implementing cross-departmental cooperation in national information security policies. In July 2021, Russia issued National Security Strategy 2021, which listed information security as an independent item, proposing that 14

Material Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-extends-twitter-slowdown-dea dline-to-remove-content/ar-BB1fjLXG.

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the goal of Russian information security was to strengthen the sovereignty in information space. To this end, Russia will develop information countermeasure force and use advanced technologies like AI and quantum computing to ensure information security.

9.4.4 The European Union The European Union initiates several plans and deploys in digital industry, technological R&D and cross-border data flow to enlarge digital cooperation. It also expedites the legislation in the Internet field, disseminates EU’s norms, principles and values, and influences the formulation of relevant international rules. (1) Accelerating the digital transformation of the European Union and strengthening the digital sovereignty of the European Union. The European Union successively releases programmatic documents such as The EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade and 2030 Digital Compass: The European Way for the Digital Decade, which put forward many goals, e.g. enhancing EU’s cybersecurity-protection capacity, promoting EU’s digital transformation and aggrandizing EU’s voice and influence over international norms and standards in cyberspace. Simultaneously, the European Union further adjusts the industrial layout in emerging areas. In March 2021, the European Union announced that it planned to invest 76 billion euros in cutting-edge technologies, including AI and cybersecurity, from 2021 to 2027. In May 2021, in response to the adjustment of global supply chains against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union updated EU Industrial Strategy, proposing to enhance the resilience of EU single market, broaden the autonomy of opening-up strategy, forge multilateral international partnerships, and establish industrial alliances like Semiconductor Technology Alliance and Cloud Computing Alliance. Additionally, the European Union launches two drafts of Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, which formulate new comprehensive rules for digital service providers and promote the openness, transparency and fair competition in digital market. In the field of cybersecurity, the European Union publishes Directive on Measures for a High Common Level of Cybersecurity across the Union (Draft), which will further the high-level integration of overall security of EU’s basic network. (2) Speeding up the establishment of digital partnership and putting forward the EU Indo-Pacific Strategy. In December 2020, the European Union founded D4D, which gathered stakeholders from EU government agencies, private institutions, academic institutions, financial institutions and social groups, with the goal of increasing investment in digital transformation of partner countries, making rules for global digital economy and society, and advancing EU’s international digital partnership.15 In April 2021, the European Union released The EU 15

Material Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2321.

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Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. As the Strategy suggested, digital cooperation signified a key measure to promote the EU Indo-Pacific Strategy. The European Commission declared that the European Union would cooperate with Indo-Pacific countries in the fields of AI, data security, cross-border data flow and 5G. (3) Carrying out cross-border data law-enforcement assessment and pushing on cross-border data negotiation. In March 2021, the European Parliament adopted Commission Evaluation Report on the Implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation Two Years After Its Application,16 which pointed out the unsatisfactory law-enforcement of GDPR to date and called for improving the implementation of GDPR. Besides, the European Union and the United States have been engaged in negotiations on making the latest cross-border data transmission agreement. The European Union also accelerates the adequacy decision of data protection with the United Kingdom, South Korea and other countries. (4) Promulgating the first proposal of Artificial Intelligence Act and fostering the formulation of international rules on AI. In April 2021, the European Union staged the proposal of Artificial Intelligence Act and took different regulatory measures for AI systems at different risk levels.17 The proposal suggested empowering supervisory authorities to take interim measures and collect fines. According to the proposal, some “unacceptable” AI applications would be banned in Europe. For instance, the use of biometric-recognition technology will be stringently restricted, and face-recognition technology used by law-enforcement departments will be appropriately controlled.

9.4.5 Germany Germany keeps improving the top-level design of cutting-edge technologies like AI and quantum communication. In terms of regulation, Germany highlights the security of communication devices and services. In terms of platform governance, Germany amplifies antitrust governance and social-media-content governance. (1) Strengthening investment and deployment in cutting-edge technologies. In December 2020, German government revised German Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in 2018 and planned to increase the funding for AI from three billion euros to five billion euros by 2025 by means of economic stimuli and package plans. German Quantum System Planning Committee released the report Quantum Technology: The Framework Plan of the Federal Government from the Foundation to the Market, which clarified research priorities and challenges of Germany in the field of quantum system in the future ten years. The 16

Material Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2021-0111_EN.html. Material Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/proposal-regulation-layingdown-harmonised-rules-artificial-intelligence. 17

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Federal Ministry of Education and Research (German: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) will formulate new quantum system research plans in line with the report. (2) Improving relevant legislation on ICT security. In April 2021, German Bundestag approved Communication Security Act 2.0, which stipulated that key components of mobile technologies shall be strictly reviewed and suppliers providing core network devices must be technologically examined in terms of security. It also specified that German telecom operators must report to Bundesministerium des Innern (BMI) when they would obtain key components from suppliers for the first time. (3) Reinforcing antitrust governance against digital platforms. In January 2021, German Bundestag passed Digital Competition Law, which imposed stricter control on Internet enterprises. Digital Competition Law significantly raised the threshold for applying for mergers and acquisitions of German Internet enterprises and enhanced the regulatory function of Federal Cartel Office, so as to conduct the investigation on anti-competitive practice more effectively. (4) Deepening the governance of Internet content. In May 2021, German Bundestag adopted the revised the Network Enforcement Act (Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, NetzDG) to consolidate the protection of user rights and combat online hate speech. German government remarked that NetzDG enlarged the transparency obligation for social media enterprises and other online participants, and regulated the conditions for researchers to access social media data.18

9.4.6 France France views the collection of digital tax as an important measure to promote its digital sovereignty strategy and maintain a strong stance in this regard. In December 2020, France officially imposed digital service tax on digital giants. American digital giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple were included in the taxed objects. Specific tax revenue involved in Internet advertising income, income from personal data use and income from market sales. As French economic department estimated, digital tax would produce c. 600 million euros of tax revenue for France in 2021.19 France and the United States started a series of negotiations on digital tax, which even triggered tariff war. By levying digital tax, France not only demonstrates its firm position of defending its own interests with the principle of independence and autonomy, but also urges the European Union to introduce common tax policies in the digital area. In cybersecurity, France further improves the construction of cybersecurity capacity. In 2021, France launched a new cybersecurity construction plan and invested one billion euros in promoting cybersecurity construction and containing 18

Material Source: https://www.telecompaper.com/news/german-parliament-approves-reform-ofnetwork-enforcement- act-1382325. 19 Material Source: http://views.ce.cn/view/ent/202012/01/t20201201_36065718.shtml.

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cyberattacks. According to the plan, France would bolster the education and training of cybersecurity personnel, build Le Campus Cyber Français with an area of 20,000 square meters, and execute “Cyber Firefighter Program”. By establishing emergency agencies in various cities, France can make rapid response to cyberattacks. French government also calls for more international cooperation in cybersecurity, especially the cooperation with Europol and Interpol in combating cybercrime.20

9.4.7 The United Kingdom After Brexit, the United Kingdom actively plans to build an innovative power to enhance its global influence and makes strategic deployment in cyberspace. In 2021, the United Kingdom successively established UK Cyber Security Council and UK Advanced Research and Invention Agency, released AI Roadmap with important guiding significance, advised British government to promote the application and trusted development of AI in advantageous fields, and called on British government to launch national AI strategies. In March 2021, British government published Global Britain in a Competitive Age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy,21 which comprehensively planned British actions in cyberspace. As the document suggests, the United Kingdom will focus on: (1) Improving British cyber ecosystem, deepening cooperation among government, academia and industry, strengthening technological R&D, innovation and talent training, and supporting the construction of industrial bases for cybersecurity products and services. (2) Boosting the digital transformation of British economy, establishing a British global leading position in digital trade, enhancing data protection, and updating cybersecurity defense capability. (3) Expanding the leading role of key technologies, maintaining the development of industrial infrastructure, forging the advantages of key technologies, and formulating an advanced legal framework to support the application of digital technologies. (4) Deepening international partnership, actively developing foreign relations in the rules and standards for technologies and digital economy, and safeguarding British interests in cyberspace. (5) Cracking down on malicious activities in cyberspace. The document also specifies that the United Kingdom will further its deeper partnership with Indo-Pacific countries in science, technology and data to augment British influence in the Indo-Pacific. 20 Material Source: “France Announces Its Cybersecurity Construction Plan” published at People’s Daily, April 6, 2021. 21 Material Source: Global Britain in a Competitive Age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.

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The United Kingdom energetically broadens global trade partnership. In January 2021, the United Kingdom announced its application for a CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) member state, aiming to seek new opportunities for modern industries like science and technology and services. In June 2021, the United Kingdom declared the start of digital trade negotiations with Singapore. The two sides would strengthen cooperation in cross-border data flow, Fintech and other fields to help to remove digital trade barriers.

9.4.8 Japan Japan accelerates the layout of emerging technologies and reinforces industrial cooperation and Japan-U.S. bilateral coordination, with an attempt to fortify its international competitiveness in cyberspace. (1) Fostering innovations in quantum technology. In January 2021, Japanese government convened the 8th Comprehensive Innovation Strategy Promotion Meeting, which clarified that Japan would take measures to promote the innovation and development of quantum technology on the basis of Quantum Technology Innovation Strategy published in January 2020, including giving play to the role of Quantum Technology Innovation Negotiation Meeting, building quantum technology innovation base, and strengthening cooperation in “industry, university and research”. In May 2021, several Japanese corporations like Toshiba, NTT and Fujitsu initiated and established “Negotiation Meeting on Cultivating New Industries by Using Quantum Technology”, which was committed to building globally competitive quantum technology cooperation systems and jointly promoting the development of quantum technology via cooperation among industry, government and university. (2) Advancing 5G and 6G technological R&D cooperation. In April 2021, Japanese and American heads met and issued a joint statement. The two sides agreed to jointly invest 4.5 billion U.S. dollars to the R&D, development, testing and deployment of 5G and 6G technologies and launch global digital interconnectivity partnership, so as to facilitate security interconnectivity and digital economy and build the cybersecurity capacity of partners.22 In June 2021, Japan and Finland signed a 6G technological cooperation agreement to boost cooperation in the formulation of 6G standards, in which the University of Tokyo, NTT and Nokia, a Finnish equipment manufacturer, would participate. (3) Passing a series of digital reform acts. In May 2021, House of Councilors of Japan voted to pass Digital Reform Association Act and planned to organize Digital Agency in September 2021. Like a control tower for digital reform of Japanese governmental and non-governmental institutions, the Act consists of six laws, e.g. Digital Agency Establishment Law that covers national information 22

Data Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/16/factsheet-u-s-japan.

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system and Basic Law on Building Digital Society that takes “realizing a digital society” as a basic idea.

9.4.9 South Korea South Korea vigorously promotes digital transformation and upgrading and crossborder data flow, quickly improves global competitiveness of domestic semiconductor industry, and enhances the supervision and governance of cryptocurrency. (1) Forwarding the implementation of “Digital New Deal”. In November 2020, South Korea initiated “Digital New Deal” Promotion Plan, which focused on accelerating core programs such as digital dam, smart government, smart health and digital twin, improving the R&D level of AI and other technologies, and cultivating digital talents. Besides, in July 2020, South Korean government released its economic development program, which planned to vigorously develop digital economy and green economy in next five years and boost the transformation and upgrading of South Korea’s economy. (2) Facilitating cross-border data flow between the European Union and South Korea. In March 2021, the EU-South Korea Adequacy Decision Negotiation came to an end. The two sides agreed that the “adequacy decision” mechanism enabled the free flow of personal data in the European Union and South Korea, which robustly spurred bilateral cross-border data trade and achieved high-degree integration of data protection. (3) Releasing “Strategy for Building a Semiconductor Power”. In May 2021, South Korean government and chip manufacturing enterprises announced an investment of around 510 trillion South Korean Won in next 10 years to build the world’s largest chip manufacturing base, making South Korea a comprehensive semiconductor power by 2030. Particularly, South Korean government will give aid to South Korean semiconductor enterprises by reducing tax and interest rate, slackening regulatory requirements and strengthening infrastructure construction. (4) Cracking down on cryptocurrency-based tax evasion. South Korea steps up efforts to crack down on illegal activities of tax evasion by using cryptocurrency. As the trading volume of cryptocurrency continues to expand, South Korea will tax the income from virtual assets in 2022, planning to levy 20% capital gains tax on profits from cryptocurrency trading that exceeds 2,300 U.S. dollars. 9.4.9.1

India

India quickens the deployment of 5G and improves digital financial services. At the regulatory level, India introduces stricter regulations on social platform and cryptocurrency.

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(1) In 5G construction, in February 2021, Bharti Airtel, an Indian telecom operator, cooperated with Qualcomm, an American chip manufacturer, to accelerate 5G operation in India. In May 2021, the Indian Ministry of Communications issued an announcement, allowing global telecom equipment manufacturers like Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to participate in 5G testing in India. (2) In digital finance, Indian enterprises collaborate with technological giants like Facebook and Google on establishing Indian local electronic payment networks. State Bank of India joined Liink, an inter-bank data network based on blockchain technology developed by J.P. Morgan, hoping to reduce transaction costs and improve customers’ cross-border payment experience via technological integration. (3) In social media regulation, in February 2021, India published Information Technology Rules 2021 (Intermediary Guide and Digital Media Ethical Code) to regulate social media platforms, streaming media services and digital news organizations. The rules require that social-media intermediary platforms should establish a complaint correction mechanism to receive and resolve complaints from users or victims, and delete the content within 24 h after receiving the complaint, so as to ensure cybersecurity and dignity of users (especially female users). (4) In cryptocurrency regulation, in March 2021, India amended The Third Schedule of the Companies Law 2013, requiring listed companies and private companies to disclose their cryptocurrencies and other activities using digital currencies. Besides, India plans to form an expert group to further research and regulate cryptocurrency. 9.4.9.2

ASEAN

The continuous raging of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly aggrandizes the demand of ASEAN countries for digital services, whose willingness of regional digital development, cooperation and governance further intensifies. In January 2021, the 1st ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting (ADGMIN) was staged via video conference. It adopted ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025, which clarified the goals and paths for ASEAN digital development. The action plan made in the Masterplan will give priority to promoting the recovery of ASEAN economy from the COVID19 pandemic, improving the quality and coverage of fixed and mobile broadband infrastructure, and providing reliable digital services. It will create a competitive digital service market, ameliorate the quality of e-government services and expand their use. Besides, it will furnish digital services connected to businesses and boost cross-border trade, enhance the capacities of enterprises and citizens to participate in digital economy, and help to build an inclusive digital society. In order to urge ASEAN to formulate uniform cybersecurity and data flow standards and consolidate overall cybersecurity and data protection level of ASEAN, ASEAN simultaneously released Data Management Framework and Contractual Clauses for Cross Border Data Flows. In April 2021, blockchain associations of Indonesia, Singapore, the

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Philippines, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries signed a memorandum of understanding to establish ASEAN Blockchain Alliance and promote blockchain cooperation in the Asia Pacific Region.

9.4.9.3

Australia

In Australia, governance of digital platforms is constantly upgraded. In February 2021, Parliament of Australia passed News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, which required Google, Facebook and other technological corporations to pay for their news content to the media. It also stipulated that both parties can resolve major disputes through fair and balanced arbitration procedures. In response to the Code, Google and Facebook threatened to shut down their relevant services in Australia in protest; yet, they finally reached an agreement with Australia and consented to pay Australian news organizations. In April 2021, Federal Court of Australia ruled that Google misled consumers when collecting personal location information via Android mobile devices, hence imposing a fine on Google. In June 2021, Australian Senate adopted Online Security Act 2021. According to the Act, citizens can require platforms to delete content about cyber bullying and abuse within 24 h, and social platforms like Facebook and Twitter will face huge fines if they fail to handle the request in a timely manner.

9.4.9.4

Other Regions

In West Asia and South Asia, some countries seize the opportunity of digital development and actively launch bilateral/multilateral digital cooperation. In November 2020, five countries, i.e. Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, jointly established Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO). In April 2021, Nigeria and Oman formally joined DCO. DCO aims to strengthen cooperation in all innovationdriven fields, accelerate the growth of digital economy, and promote common digital vision of member states in achieving economic diversification and improving social prosperity. In April 2021, DCO started its first ministerial meeting and reached an agreement on launching a number of initiatives. These initiatives would assist DCO member states to realize a digital future by advancing cross-border data flow, empowering women in digital labor market, and providing services for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises.23 In Africa, cooperation that promotes digital transformation is underway. In March 2021, Egypt and Iraq held a bilateral meeting, centering on bilateral cooperation in digital fields such as information technology and communications. The two sides planned to implement joint projects to carry forward digital transformation, digital 23

Material Source: Russia extends Twitter slowdown, deadline to remove content, https://www. msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-extends-twitter-slowdown-deadline-to-remove-content/ar-BB1 fjLXG.

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capacity building and digital infrastructure development. In April 2021, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Technology of South Africa released National Data and Cloud Policies (Draft), which intended to improve national capacity in public services by putting governmental data on the cloud. In line with effective analysis of data, South Africa formulates more scientific public policies to improve its data sovereignty and maintain its data security.24 China and Egypt actively carry out IT cooperation. Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Electronics Research Institute of Egypt signed a memorandum on international cooperation in electronic-technology incubator, in order to enhance the BRI cooperation as well as scientific and technological innovation and development. The COVID-19 pandemic poses new challenges to the world and impels people to re-consider international cyberspace governance. The future development of the world rests on our efforts to common destiny and future of mankind. The future of cyberspace calls for the convergence of wisdom and the advancement in practice. For people in various countries, it is a common wish to hand down the torch of peace inter-generationally, steadfastly empower Internet development and develop human civilization. All parties should seize the historical opportunity of information revolution, cultivate new momentum for innovation and development, forge new landscape of digital cooperation, strengthen dialogues and cooperation, and jointly promote the interconnectedness as well as collaboration, participation and common interests in cyberspace, so as to better benefit people of all countries with achievements of Internet development and work together to build “a community with a shared future in cyberspace”!

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Material Source: South Africa: New draft national data and cloud policy, https://www.bowman slaw.com/insights/technology-media-and-telecommunications/south-africa-new-draft-nationaldata-and-cloud-policy/.

Postscript

Presently, information technology represented by Internet has increasingly become a leading force for innovation-driven development, which propels qualitative leap in social productivity and signals global, strategic and revolutionary digital transformation. With World Internet Development Report 2021 (hereinafter referred to as “the Report”), we hope to comprehensively represent the status quo of world Internet development in the past year, interpret the trends in world Internet development, facilitate the building of “a community with a shared future in cyberspace” among international community, and jointly forge a better future for mankind. During the compilation of the Report, we receive guidance and support from the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission (hereinafter referred to as “OCCAC”). Leaders of the OCCAC give us specific guidance on the Report. Relevant ministries and commissions, bureaus and units of the OCCAC as well as cyberspace affairs commissions of all provinces provide us with strong support in necessary data and materials. The Report is launched by Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies (CACS), and co-organized and co-compiled by National Computer Network and Information Security Administrative Center, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and National Industrial Information Security Development Research Center. Experts and scholars, including Zhou Hongren, Gao Xinmin, Hu Zhijian, Zhao Guojun and Zhang Li, contribute their valuable suggestions. Main contributors are: Xia Xueping, Fang Xinxin, Li Yuxiao, Xuan Xingzhang, Li Yingxin, Zou Xiaoxiang, Liao Jin, Cheng Yifeng, Jiang Wei, Jiang Yang, Nan Ting, Wang Hailong, Li Xiaojiao, Xu Yanfei, Jiang Shuli, Tian Yuan, Chi Haiyan, Li Wei, Yuan Xin, Chen Jing, Xu Yu, Xiao Zheng, Wu Wei, Zhang Qiyuan, Zhao Gaohua, Shen Yu, Li Yangchun, Deng Jueshuang, Cai Yang, Jia Shuowei, Liu Chaochao, Sun Luman, Lin Hao, Liu Zhuoyue, Wang Hualei, Wang Liying, Zhang Xuejun, Chong Dandan, Gao Taishan, Zhang Nan, Tang Sisi, Xie Xinzhou, Shi Anbin, Xu Yuan, Chen Hongsong, Chen Kai, Wang Yulong, Zhao Jingwu, Cheng Zhe and He Aoxuan.

© Publishing House of Electronics Industry 2023 Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, World Internet Development Report 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9323-7

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Postscript

The Report, albeit successfully published thanks to the strong support and considerable help from all sectors of society, is inadequate in terms of perspective and insight due to our limited research level, working experience and tight deadline. Therefore, we ardently welcome valuable opinions and suggestions from governmental departments, international organizations, research institutes, Internet corporations and social organizations across different sectors, home and abroad, to help us produce better reports in the future and contribute more wisdom and strength to world Internet development. Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies (CACS). August 2021.