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William Zheng

A lawmaker in China’s financial hub of Shanghai has called for the lifting of strict internet controls in free-trade zones, financial districts and universities to help support AI development and attract foreign investment and talent.
Mao Xiangdong, vice-president of the Shanghai Institute of Technology and a member of the standing committee of the municipal people’s congress, proposed the idea during Shanghai’s ongoing legislative sessions, according to a post by China Development News, a newspaper under the National Development and Reform Commission.
It is not clear when the post was put online but it was removed on Friday morning.
Shanghai should “continue to learn new technologies from developed countries”, Mao said, according to Toutiao, a popular news and information aggregation site.
He added that the mission of building China into an international economic, financial, trade, shipping, science and tech innovation centre – as envisioned by President Xi Jinping – required “global exchanges”.
During an inspection trip to the city in December 2023, Xi discussed a “five-centres goal”, in which Shanghai should be a global hub based on the economy, finance, trade, shipping, and scientific and technological innovation. The plan became a trending political and economic vision for the city.


Mao suggested that authorities should consider allowing unfiltered internet access in its international business zones, including its free-trade zones – the Lujiazui business district, China International Import Expo sites and the Hongqiao International Central Business District – to “enhance the international competitiveness of Shanghai”.
He also said that unfiltered internet access to international social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and X should be accessible in compounds with high numbers of international residents, such as the Pudong International Talent Hub, to better attract foreigners to live in or travel to Shanghai.
He also urged the city to ease internet restrictions at its research and tertiary institutions so teachers and researchers could have easier access to leading global artificial intelligence platforms such as ChatGPT.
Mao said that in the era of AI, as long as the cross-border flow of sensitive data was regulated and controlled, the benefits of opening up computing power and the internet would “outweigh the disadvantages”, and benefit education, scientific research, business and innovation, while boosting employment opportunities.
China’s “Great Firewall” – the world’s most sophisticated censorship system – maintains stringent controls over what the world’s biggest population of internet users can access. The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet watchdog, has repeatedly vowed to exert full online control to filter out undesirable information from overseas.
Without a VPN, China’s 1.1 billion internet users – equivalent to more than three times the population of the United States – cannot get access to many of the world’s most popular websites and applications.
The number of websites blocked in China has ballooned to more than 10,000, a blacklist that includes Western social networks, messaging platform WhatsApp; news outlets including Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times; and popular collaboration tools such as Dropbox and Google Drive.
Many have argued that the restrictions have stifled innovation and creativity in China as those who need to access blocked sites have to resort to private networks such as VPNs or proxies such as Shadowsocks to bypass the firewall.


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Legislator Mao Xiangdong calls for lifting of internet restrictions in free-trade zones, financial districts and universities


Legislator Mao Xiangdong calls for lifting of internet restrictions in free-trade zones, financial districts and universities.


China’s internet censorship

Unplug ‘Great Firewall’ to help China compete, Shanghai lawmaker says

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Legislator Mao Xiangdong calls for lifting of internet restrictions in free-trade zones, financial districts and universities

Legislator Mao Xiangdong calls for lifting of internet restrictions in free-trade zones, financial districts and universities