Chinese Government Endorses Global Internet, Says ICANN's Chehade

The Chinese government has “legitimized” ICANN and the notion of “one global Internet,” said ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade in a videoconference Monday. He said he had just returned from China’s World Internet Conference. The “danger” of the Chinese government partitioning its Internet is “largely behind us,” he said. That’s “extremely powerful and notable,” said Chehade. The Chinese expect to have a “seat at the table” in global Internet governance debates, he said. China’s participation within and endorsement of such debates was “impossible” as long as the U.S. maintained its contract over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions with ICANN, said Chehade. ICANN couldn’t claim China had an “equal seat at the table” while the U.S. had authority over the IANA functions, he said. “By ‘seat at the table’ Fadi was not talking ‘seat on the ICANN Board’ but rather the euphemistic seat at the table of discussion,” emailed an ICANN spokesman Wednesday. He said ICANN has had Chinese board members in the past; Hualin Qian served from 2003 to 2006 and Pindar Wong served as the board’s first vice chairman in 1999.