"Countries that restrict free and open access to the internet are really walling themselves off from the progress of the next century," says Ambassador Locke at China 2.0 event in Beijing

In his opening keynote to a capacity audience at the China 2.0 Beijing 2013 Forum, U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Gary Locke delivered a clear message: for any country operating in today’s global economy, free and open access to the internet is vital to kindle innovation, attract capital, and cultivate entrepreneurship.

“Attempts to unleash the transformative power of the internet, while controlling political and cultural content, are ultimately counterproductive,” said Locke on April 12th at the Stanford Center at Peking University. “Censorship not only harms the internet industry, it hurts the economy.”

Locke, who assumed the ambassadorship in August 2011 and previously served as President Obama’s Secretary of Commerce, addressed a diverse audience of tech leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, academics, and Stanford alumni from mainland China and overseas.

The one-day, invitation-only forum was part of a series of events at Stanford University and in China organized by the China 2.0 Initiative of the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Other speakers included founders, venture capitalists, executives and leaders from Alibaba, AppAnnie, Baidu, Bertelsmann, Evernote, GSR Ventures, Kuwo, La Miu, Qiming Ventures, RedAtoms, Renren and Stanford University.

Attempts to unleash the transformative power of the internet, while controlling political and cultural content, are ultimately counterproductive.
                                                 -- Ambassador Gary Locke

In wide-ranging remarks on "China and the Global Digital Economy," Locke began by pointing out that the internet has transformed not only China’s economy, but society too. He said the internet has raised Chinese people’s awareness about the environment and inspired them to demand greater accountability from their government.

“In 2008, we placed a single air monitor on top of the embassy and began to tweet information to American citizens in Beijing about air quality.” By late 2011, Locke said, Chinese citizens began re-tweeting the data on popular microblogging sites, and began demanding of the Chinese government better environmental data and stronger air quality regulations.

Locke admits he never anticipated the extent to which Chinese citizens would take interest in the embassy’s air quality data, but suggests the recent groundswell of public attention surrounding air pollution is the fillip that has pushed the Chinese government to adopt more stringent environmental standards and install some 500 particulate matter (PM) monitors in over 70 cities in China. The Ambassador drew laughs from the audience when he added that “PM 2.5” had become a common phrase in the Chinese vernacular; citing a family trip to southern China, he said, “people were coming up to us and saying ‘PM 2.5!’”

The Ambassador also offered a blunt assessment about the challenges of internet security, especially regarding the protection of intellectual property rights. “We know, for example, that cyber-based theft of personal information [and] corporate information is occurring”, Locke noted. “Whether you’re a private citizen transferring money from your bank account or a multinational corporation engaged in international transactions or simply trying to safeguard your trade secrets… everyone is concerned about protecting their data online.”

Ambassador Locke was careful to make one point clear: intellectual property rights is not a US versus China issue. To the contrary, he pointed out, in order for China to become an entrepreneurial, high-tech economy, it must redouble its efforts to protect the fruits of its own inventors and innovators. “For every foreign firm calling for stronger IP protection,” Locke told the audience, “there are many more Chinese companies and entrepreneurs demanding the same.”

Locke closed his talk by offering reasons for optimism, saying that China recognizes where it needs to go if it wants to create an innovation-based society— and that’s what’s important. “The bottom line is—we’re seeing progress here in China.”