Sound from Wuzhen: Global attendees speak highly of 2022 World Internet Conference

The 2022 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit kicked off on Nov. 9, 2022 in the river town of Wuzhen in east China's Zhejiang Province.

Under the theme of "Towards a Shared Digital Future in a Connected World -- Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace," the three-day event brought together more than 2,000 representatives from over 120 countries and regions.

Kumbirai Diza, counsellor at Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe

This is my first time (coming to Wuzhen). The city is very, very beautiful, quite auspicious. The ambiance is quite beautiful, and attractive, with a nicely Chinese culture, which shows a degree of civilization, which does send you respect.

I've noticed that the Internet is made life easier for everyone. They are great opportunities as well as challenges associated with the use of the Internet, where the major takeaway is the need for dialogue cooperation in that area to ensure that the Internet topography or terrain is not abused by bad guys.

China is quite taking good leadership, leading role (in global Internet cooperation), because we have seen that the initiative of this great conference well suits and fit into the Global Development Initiative, which seeks to address global challenges confronting humanity, from a global recession or inflation, the pandemic situation, as well as geopolitical tensions or configurations.

World Internet Conference is quite a useful platform because I generally saw the need for collaboration, interaction, and you know the dialogue to have for the harmonious internet terrain of environment.

Luke Johnston, PhD student at Shanghai Jiaotong University

This is the 1st time I've attended the WIC it's a great opportunity for me. I'm really excited to see what is on offer here. I think that Wuzhen is a very interesting location for it to be. Because this is all about digital technology in Wuzhen, (which) is kind of like the antithesis of that it's a very ancient town, 1,300 years old. So it's kind of like a unique blend of culture, like from the past to the future.

I've attended the summit, and I've found out how AI has been used for all sorts of branches really within China, whether it's for agriculture, whether it's for just smart technology, for driverless cars, for the metaverse. And related to some of the forums, I was really interested in how digital technology has improved amongst the pandemic, because, you know, we're seeing that a lot of companies require people to work from home more and more now, so there's a big reliance on that. So I think that was really important.

We're seeing a lot online that it's kind of a race for global domination of digital technology. But actually, from this conference, what I've learned and what I've seen, is that really we need to work together as a globe because this is all about trying to make things better for mankind and to make society better.

I think that the WIC is a fantastic opportunity because it's kind of a variety of guests who are attending. We are having politicians, we are having CEO s, presidents of lots of different types of corporations, I come from a university institute, so we're getting all sorts of ideas. Also we're having guests from outside as well, seeing what problems they might face, and how they seem very keen to work with China. China has many opportunities, so I think if we can discuss and collaborate more, then that'll be fantastic.

Fang Haoming, reporter and anchor at China Arab TV

I have been covering the World Internet Conference for two days. I feel that this report is very interesting, especially every forum. Some of the forums I attended talked about China's poverty alleviation in the past decade. I learned about how China has been lifted out of poverty under the leadership of CPC.

Moreover, I think other countries should learn from China's poverty alleviation model, so that my country and more countries faced with poverty problems can learn from China's success in poverty alleviation.

Besides the forums, I went to a meta-universe and naked eye 3D experience. I stood inside the machine, and it scanned my whole body, which was very interesting.

Then I can see a 3D model of me on the screen. I never dare to go skydiving, but after I finished scanning yesterday, it generated a skydiving video for me on my mobile phone. It was me jumping from a plane to Wuzhen. It looked very advanced and real.

I think attending the World Internet Conference can help a lot of companies get to know each other and learn from each other. It’s important for companies to learn from other companies, countries to learn from other countries. As a journalist myself, I also got to know many of my peers and learned a lot at WIC.