Article Posted on : - May 29, 2012

BEIJING (PTI): China has called for joint efforts by the international community to formulate rules to administer cyber space for dealing with "grim" challenges concerning online risks.

Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of Chinese People's Liberation Army, on Monday told a seminar "Cyber Security: China and the World" attended by 80 experts from more than 20 countries that international community needed to make joint efforts to formulate rules for cyber space.

"The issue of cyber security has been creeping from the virtual world to the real world with the development of information technology and the popularisation of the Internet," Ma said.

"It has posed new challenges for the security of all nations as well as international security," he said.

As the Internet is open and transnational, no country can effectively address the global challenge single-handedly, he said.

US and several countries have blamed numerous hacker attacks on their countries originating from China, while Beijing asserts that it is also a victim.

China is not only a beneficiary of the development of the Internet, but also a victim of cyber attacks, he said.

However, the world does not yet have any set of widely recognised and accepted rules applicable to the area, a gap which has restrained the healthy development of the online community and the effective management of the Internet, he said.

Ma said China, in partnership with other countries, has put forward a draft international code on information security to the United Nations to initiate an open and inclusive process of discussion on the issue.

All nations should seek common ground while reserving differences and boost exchanges and cooperation to address the issue of cyber security "just as we address international political disputes in the real world," Xinhua quoted him as saying.