Du Yuejin also pointed out that, as a developing country, China did not shirk its own responsibility. Although it could not solve all the existing problems, China had been actively promoting international cooperation and ameliorating the global network security environment. “For example,” Du Yuejin continued, “in the aspect of information sharing, back in 2001, the emergency response organization of China informed South Korea the minute it found out that ‘Code Red’ worms were intruding lots of Korean computers. In the aspect of strengthening international cooperation, in order to jointly promote international network security, China proposed to enhance intergovernmental network security cooperation in the International Telecommunication Union back in 2002. Back then, it received objections from certain western countries which have now become the most active promoters of cyberspace security negotiation. In 2003, as one of the initiators, the emergency response organization of China founded the Asia Pacific Emergency Response Cooperation Organization. Inter-region cooperative response for security issues was unfolded, which became an important reference in international network security cooperation. Since 2004, China has been proposing to establish a network security emergency cooperative framework with ASEAN countries, providing those countries with training courses concerning national cyberspace security ability, and helping them to establish national emergency response organizations and so on. In 2007, China led the accomplishment of programs concerning botnet response guidance in the APEC, calling for further development of global cooperation in dealing with the tremendous threat to global network security. Suggestions proposed by us should have reduced this network space security threat, but they were objected by many economies advanced in information technologies. To a certain extent, this kind of conservatism and inaction made the global network security work even harder.”
“More examples can be given to prove that China has been contributing as much as it could to network security, though western media are obviously not interested in this subject. Perhaps, except for us professionals, almost nobody knows that since 2004, China has been helping other countries to deal with phishing hundreds of times each year. This brings us back to the issue of discourse power we mentioned before.” Du Yuejin said, “As to China’s determination against cyber-attacks, relevant Chinese government departments have been cracking down on certain exchange platforms such as network hackers’ forums. In order to meet the need of striking network crimes, these departments have also been revising relevant laws and regulations. Some security enterprises even exclaimed that these methods had made it very difficult for them to recruit staff members capable of front-line technology. Doubtlessly, these above measures all reflect China’s determination and efforts against network crimes.” Du Yueming further emphasized that western countries should give these facts their due consideration and start to reflect on their own responses in the meantime. “Countries busy in criticizing China should first examine themselves. How much of their share remained undone in the aspect of assisting other countries to solve security problems, dealing with security incidents and improving security ability?”
As a developing country with limited technical capability, China has been delivering its sincerity in “willingness to cooperate with the international community to maintain network security in a positive and pragmatic way”. After all, no country is able to deal with global issues like “cyber-attacks” if it simply relies on its own “network security forces” or “network security strategy”. When the need to cooperate arises, each and every country should avoid the vicious circle of “cyber-attacks – mutual suspicions – refusal to cooperate – more serious cyber-attacks”. Nor should certain countries use “cyber-attacks” to hype the “China Threat” cliché out of certain kind of geopolitical purpose.