The World Forum on Rule of Law in Internet is opened on Dec 5 in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo by Sun Ruofeng/Supreme People's Court]

China's top court president encouraged countries to strengthen judicial cooperation and build a community with a shared future in cyberspace at the World Forum on Rule of Law in Internet that opened on Dec 5 in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang province.

At the opening ceremony, Zhou Qiang, chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) of the People's Republic of China, stated that all countries should deepen judicial cooperation, improve construction of law-based cyberspace, promote governance of cyberspace and optimize a governance system of the global internet to push forward the building of a community with a shared future in cyberspace.

He pointed that the new round of science and technology revolution and the rapid development of industrial transformation and the internet bring opportunities and challenges.

A basic approach to govern a country in modern times, the rule of law also plays a fundamental role in cyberspace governance. How to properly use and manage the internet to make it benefit people is a common issue on which all countries should focus.

Zhou stressed that China has highly valued cyber security and information industry development since the idea of "build a community with a shared future in cyberspace" was first proposed at the second World Internet Conference in 2015.

The SPC is willing to share and promote experiences in internet judicial reform, integration of internet technology and judicial work as well as innovations of internet judicial modes to know more about and learn from construction of law-based internet systems in other countries.

Saying that he hopes the forum can contribute to promoting international judicial cooperation, improving the global internet governance system and advancing legalization of cyberspace governance, Zhou encouraged all countries to reach agreements on internet judicial governance, adhere to principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and target progress in internet judicial modernization to promote sound and sustainable law-based internet construction.

In addition, he pointed out that increased exchanges of internet judicial governance and mutual learning and deepened practical cooperation, particularly in exploring trial and litigation mechanisms, are significant in improving internet judicial capacity and promoting normalization and legalization of global cyberspace governance.

Che Jun, secretary of Zhejiang provincial Party committee, spoke about "internet plus judicial cases" in the province at the ceremony and outlined steps the province has taken to integrate the internet into each judicial proceeding.

He added that the province will take the forum as a chance to learn from other countries and is determined to create more Zhejiang models for building a community with a shared future in cyberspace.

Kyriakos Oikonomou, Judge of the Hellenic Supreme Court of Civil and Criminal Justice of the Hellenic Republic, spoke highly of China's contribution in the construction of law-based cyberspace and praised the forum as a main movement to strengthen international judicial exchange and cooperation.

He expressed his willingness to see attendees share with and learn from each other and give suggestions on building a law-based internet to make cyberspace modern and safe for beneficial communication between all people.

Attendees pose for a photo at the conference on Dec 5. [Photo by Sun Ruofeng/Supreme People's Court]