US and China Talk About the Internet

Top U.S. officials, including Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Ambassador Philip Verveer, U.S. coordinator for communications and information policy, met with a Chinese delegation in Washington on Sept 7 for the fourth round of the US-China Information and Communication Technology Consultations to discuss network neutrality, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and the affirmation of commitments.

Chairman Genachowski spoke extensively about the National Broadband Plan and the core principles of an open Internet. "The Chinese agree with us on some of the cyber security issues," Ambassador Verveer said, citing one of the positive outcomes of the meeting. Cybersecurity is one of the issues that will be addressed in the next International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference, which will be held in Mexico this October. The conference is the top policy-making body of the ITU.