Kyodo News:

Section four of the Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century put forward promoting the integrated development of media, and working to strengthen the penetration and credibility of the media and its ability to guide and influence. The CPC Central Committee has made it clear that failure in the cyberspace domain will spell disaster for the Party's long-term governance. Could you please explain these words and point out specifically where the problems lie? Thank you.

Sun Yeli:

Thank you for your questions. These are really good questions demonstrating your great concern about innovations in CPC theory. Thank you for your interest. I will answer your questions.

"Failure in the cyberspace domain will spell disaster for the Party's long-term governance" is an important proposition put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping, as well as a new understanding obtained in the practice of promoting the healthy development of the internet since the 18th CPC National Congress. From what I understand, the importance of this question lies in the following aspects:

First of all, serving the people wholeheartedly is the mission of the CPC and exercising power in the interests of the people is one of the Party's most important concepts. Our governance relies on the people. Disengagement from the people will make us lose the foundations of the Party's governance, which determines that our work should be done wherever the people are, and our response should be made wherever the people's voices are. At current, internet usage rate has reached 73%, with over 1 billion netizens. Under such circumstances, we will become disengaged from the people if we do not study the internet, have a good knowledge of the internet, and have good use of the internet. Due to that, we have made great efforts over the years and have achieved great progress in these aspects. We have solicited public opinions extensively online regarding the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan the year before last and the upcoming 20th CPC National Congress this year and have got very good results.

Second, the fundamental task of the Party's governance is to release and develop the productive forces and advance modernization so as to keep realizing the people's aspiration for a better life. As things stand, with the rapid development of the internet and information technology, new technologies, new forms of business, and new industries keep emerging. The application of information technology and the internet have become important driving forces for the development of productivity. If we miss such opportunities, we will fall behind in the latest round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. Instead, if we seize the opportunities brought about by digitalization, the internet, and artificial intelligence and advance high-quality development and industrialization by making full use of information technology, modernization will be accelerated. We have seen that the emergence and development of new forms of business and new industries such as mobile payments, digital yuan, logistics, express delivery services, and internet consumption are facilitated by the internet. In this sense, the internet is both a challenge and an opportunity for us.

Third, for a party to achieve long-term governance, it must keep improving the governance capacity and modernizing the country's system and capacity for governance. Today we can see that internet is ubiquitous in a way that it is widely applied in people's daily lives as well as protecting the security of the country's important infrastructures. It can be said that the modernization of the system and capacity for governance would not be achieved without the modernization of internet governance. At the same time, the modernization of internet governance would effectively promote the modernization of the system and capacity for governance. A secure, stable, and prosperous cyberspace is of increasingly greater significance to the peace and development of a country and the world. Cyberspace is a place that connects us all. It is imperative for us to strengthen governance of cyberspace in accordance with the law and improve the provision of content on the internet out of a strong sense of responsibility to society and to our people so as to create a clean environment in cyberspace for netizens, especially teenagers. 

These are some of my understandings of this question. Just for your reference. Thank you.