Q: It is reported that 27 countries recently issued a joint statement on responsible state behavior in cyberspace. What is China's comment?

A: We have noticed this statement.

China has long been proposing to formulate a widely-accepted code of behavior in cyberspace under the framework of the United Nations. China, Russia and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization jointly put forward the world's first draft of International Code of Conduct for Information Security to the UN back in 2011. With these countries' joint efforts, the UN set up a group of governmental experts (GGE) to discuss this issue and reached important consensus. Core content of the draft document was adopted in the GGE reports which emphasizes that countries should abide by international law based on the UN Charter and strive to uphold peace and cooperation in cyberspace.

This statement misinterprets the reports of GGE, deliberately sidesteps the international consensus to build a peaceful cyberspace, and artificially divides cyberspace into "peaceful time" and "non-peaceful time". This is an attempt to justify certain countries' offensive military operations in cyberspace and to turn the cyber domain into a new theater of war. This will heighten risks of cyber conflicts and frictions between countries. And it will not help uphold peace and security in cyberspace. We call on all countries to get back to former consensus reached in the UN.

We would reiterate that international community should strengthen dialogue and cooperation following the principle of shared responsibility and prosperity to build a peaceful, secure, open, cooperative and orderly cyberspace in an effort to build a community with a shared future in cyberspace.