Beijing, China, Dec. 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In 2015, at the opening of the second World Internet Conference (WIC), Chinese President Xi Jinping creatively put forward the significant concept of "jointly building a community of shared future in cyberspace," offering a direction for global internet development and governance.
A part of his speech is included in Volume II of the book series Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, where the Chinese president pointed out that, "Cyberspace is a common space for human activities. The future of cyberspace should be in the hands of all countries. Countries should step up communication, broaden consensus, and extend cooperation to jointly build a community of shared future in cyberspace."
The 2025 WIC Wuzhen Summit was held on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the proposal of this concept. Under the theme "Forging an Open, Cooperative, Secure, and Inclusive Future of Digital Intelligence - Jointly Building a Shared Future in Cyberspace," the summit drew strong, enthusiastic responses from international delegates and civil society.
Over the past decade, adhering to the concept of "jointly building a community of shared future in cyberspace," China has deepened international cooperation in cyberspace, jointly fostered new drivers of innovative development, opened up new prospects for digital cooperation, and contributed Chinese wisdom and solutions to advancing the transformation of the global cyberspace development and governance systems.
In the 16th installment of the special series "Decoding the Book of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," the Global Times (GT), along with the People's Daily Overseas Edition, continues to invite Chinese and foreign scholars, translators of Xi's works, practitioners with firsthand experience, and international readers to discuss the theme of "jointly building a community of shared future in cyberspace," exploring the important practical significance and value of this concept.
In the 15th installment of the "Practitioner's Insights" column, the Global Times turns its focus to a project named "ASTRON Network." During this year's WIC, ASTRON was selected as an outstanding case of Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace. The project has joined hands with partners across countries and regions to erect a cross-border digital bridge, which links disparate economies and enables the secure, efficient flow of data and information. It is regarded as a vivid, practical example of jointly building a community of shared future in cyberspace through infrastructure building.
A gentle sea breeze ripples across a harbor in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province, as a freighter eases away from the quay, carrying a consignment of canned foods bound for Singapore. A few days later, in his office in Singapore, importer Chen turns on his computer and finds the electronic bill of lading for that shipment - paperwork complete, data accurate.
On a video call with his Xiamen-based partner, Chen can hardly hide his delight. "It went very smoothly," he shares with the partner. "Before, waiting for the paper bill of lading meant the whole process took about 20 days. Now it's all done in under five."
Across the shipping company that owns the freighter, operations director surnamed Zhou is equally upbeat. Company trials show that processing time per bill of lading has plunged from the traditional five to 10 days to just eight minutes - a truly revolutionary efficiency gain.
Chen and Zhou's firms are among the users of the ASTRON Network. Initiated and led by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), and developed in cooperation with partners from various countries and regions including Malaysia and Singapore, ASTRON is a global digital trust network that leverages unique technological strengths and extensive international collaboration to improve cross-border trade and multidisciplinary communication.
From Southeast Asian factories, to bustling European ports, to trading houses in China, countless cross-border transactions and services now run smoothly across online and offline environments every day. This progress rests on the rapid advancement of global internet technologies and the iterative upgrading of cross-border service solutions. Moreover, it reflects a broader diplomatic and strategic choice by countries to deepen consensus and cooperation in the digital era. Communication is strengthened by technology; efficiency rises through collaboration; and companies see tangible cost savings.
In the article "Work Together to Build a Healthy Cyberspace" in Volume II of the book series Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, President Xi Jinping noted that, "Countries should step up communication, broaden consensus, and extend cooperation to jointly build a community of shared future in cyberspace."
Guided by this vision, China has vigorously advanced practical initiatives across industries and sectors in recent years, including ASTRON. Through technological synergy and real-world applications, these efforts translate ideals into reality, continuously contributing "Chinese wisdom" and "Chinese strength" to cultivating an open, trust-based digital ecosystem.
Co-building
President Xi proposed five points in terms of jointly building a community of shared future in cyberspace, in the article "Work Together to Build a Healthy Cyberspace." The first point is to speed up the building of global internet infrastructure and promote inter-connectivity.
At the 2025 WIC held from November 6 to 9, the ASTRON Network project stood out from more than 300 submissions and was selected as an outstanding case in the network infrastructure category of Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace.
The recognition impressed on Jin Jian, the ASTRON project director and head of the Informatization and Institute for Industrial Internet & Internet of Things (IIIIoT) at the CAICT, a deep sense of responsibility. "This recognizes our practical efforts to jointly build a community of shared future in cyberspace, and affirms our exploration of a new digital-governance model based on co-building, co-sharing, and shared trust," Jin said.
The birth of the ASTRON project stemmed from an insight into the pain points of global digital collaboration. "For a long time, huge differences across countries and regions in data ownership, identity authentication, and governance rules have made cross-border data flows and digital cooperation costly and inefficient," Jin said. He pointed to product carbon-footprint management as a case: Calculation methods and regulatory regimes vary widely from one jurisdiction to another.
To break out of this predicament, "co-building" became the first step. The essence of "co-building" lies in "co," which is highly in line with the concept of "inter-connectivity" that Xi emphasized. Jin stressed that, "inter-connectivity" is not just about linking physical networks; it requires the alignment of rules, standards, and trust. "Technical interconnection is the foundation, but if data cannot be mutually recognized and identities cannot be trusted, the potential of the digital economy cannot be fully unlocked," he told the Global Times.
So how does ASTRON achieve technical interconnection? Jin explained that the ASTRON Network neither seeks to start from scratch, nor to impose a single-party solution. Instead, it practices the wisdom of co-building in every link.
Take the crucial challenge of linking identity-authentication systems as an example. As many countries and regions already operate mature corporate and personal identity systems, achieving cross-system interconnection, interoperability, and mutual recognition, is often the stumbling block. Rather than asking partners to dismantle or rebuild their existing systems, ASTRON leverages blockchain and decentralized digital identity (DID) technologies, and establishes "super nodes" in participating countries and regions.
"You can think of ASTRON as a 'global shared ledger of digital trust,' and the 'super nodes' are the ledger's 'bookkeeping centers' in each country or region," Jin said. By adopting a multi-stakeholder model, in which super nodes are co-built, participating countries and regions can share a cross-border trust network at relatively low cost. "This approach ensures that every 'super node' operator is an equal co-builder and governance participant," he added. "Everyone jointly maintains the rules and shares the fruits of development."
With that shared "ledger" in place, information can be exchanged securely and on an equal footing. And such information sharing delivers direct efficiency gains across industries engaged in cross-border collaboration. Jin gives a practical example: A manufacturer can create a unique, self-verifiable DID within ASTRON. In cross-border transactions, the need for repetitive third-party verification is therefore eliminated, and companies in other countries and regions can directly validate the key credentials tied to that DID, such as related qualifications, certifications, and credit records.
"For the involving enterprises, this unquestionably removes a great deal of procedural friction," Jin told the Global Times.
Co-sharing
The Xu family from Shanghai is planning a self-drive holiday in Malaysia in the near future. What delights Xu is that, this time, she may not need to prepare a thick stack of paper documents, such as the physical driver's license, translations and notarizations, as she normally would.
The convenience that the Xu family may enjoy before long, is precisely the practical achievement of ASTRON in the field of cross-border electronic license mutual recognition.
According to Miao Xinyi, business supervisor of the International Expansion Department of IIIIoT, CAICT, ASTRON has partnered with Malaysia's digital services company MyEG in exloring related services, aiming to enable rapid, secure on-chain verification of Chinese citizens' electronic driver's licenses in Malaysia. "Going forward, license information can be securely validated and matched on the chain in real time," Miao said. "No extra paperwork will be needed, and identity confirmation can be completed in seconds."
ASTRON's sharing ecosystem is widening. Zhang Qing, head of marketing for the ASTRON project at CAICT's IIIIoT, says the project's partners now include government agencies; industry bodies and firms in cross-border trade; and digital services across many countries and regions; "with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) benefiting the most significantly."
In terms of cooperation areas, more application scenarios such as cross-border trade, green and low-carbon development, electronic licenses, and digital identity mutual recognition are constantly being "unlocked" to serve a wider range of groups, Zhang said.
In the article "Work Together to Build a Healthy Cyberspace," Xi noted that, the essence of the internet is connectivity, and herein lies the value of information. "Only when the IT infrastructure is well developed can information flow smoothly, can the digital divide between different countries, regions, and communities be narrowed, and the full flow of information resources ensured."
Many practices have shown that, the smooth flow of network information not only saves enterprises' time and financial costs, but also breaks down geographical and institutional barriers, allowing digital dividends to benefit more.
Wu Sujin, the head of the ASTRON's "super node" in Macao, observed that the establishment of the "super node" there has materially helped local and neighboring SMEs, by lowering barriers to international expansion and boosting transaction transparency and efficiency.
Wu cited a Chinese tea exporter as an example. With ASTRON support, the company digitized its processes from provenance certification and quality testing, to brand promotion and overseas channel development. Wu told the Global Times that, the firm's platform transaction volumes have risen noticeably, and it has successfully expanded into Portuguese-speaking markets.
From mutual recognition of electronic drivers' licenses, to the opening of overseas distribution channels, concrete use cases are turning "inter-connectivity" from aspiration into practice. They, together, help the benefits of the digital economy cross borders and reach more businesses and citizens.
Shared trust
In the article "Work Together to Build a Healthy Cyberspace," Xi stressed that to improve the global internet governance system and maintain order in cyberspace, "we should observe the principles of mutual support, mutual trust, and mutual benefit." In the digital era, trust has become an essential foundation of equal cross-border collaboration, and a prerequisite for building a community of shared future in cyberspace.
You Xiaoyu, director of the International Expansion Department of IIIIoT, CAICT, has felt that truth firsthand. "The costs of 'not trusting' are often invisible, but they are huge," he said, adding that in today's cross-border business environment, companies often run into data that can't be transferred, identities that can't be verified, and credentials that don't interoperate. Every step requires repeated checks and re authentication, grinding cooperation to a crawl. Plus, deeper trust barriers stem from psychological concerns about data misuse and the leakage of trade secrets.
Spotting how lack of trust impedes the global digital economy, the ASTRON project set out to build a "cross-border digital trust bridge." From concept to deployment, it has adhered to the principles of co-building, co-sharing, and shared trust, steadily strengthening its cross-border digital infrastructure. The results are concrete: Electronic bills of lading flow rapidly through Singapore's ports; manufacturers in Germany exchange verified carbon-footprint data; banks in Macao see trade-finance risks diminish...Various businesses and individuals are beginning to reap the efficiency and convenience of a platform initiated in China and developed with international partners.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi's concept of "jointly building a community of shared future in cyberspace." Over the past decade, the wisdom and foresight embedded in that idea have been translated into practice through many projects like ASTRON. More and more responsible Chinese companies and institutions are engaging in global digital governance, putting forward initiatives, offering solutions, and sharing technologies so that the benefits of digitalization reach people around the world - a demonstration of China's commitment to build a community of shared future in cyberspace.
"This concept profoundly reveals the contemporary reality that, countries' interests in cyberspace are intertwined, and they share a common destiny," said Jin. In his view, under the current international situation, jointly building a community of shared future in cyberspace holds great practical significance, as international collaboration is essential to address cross-border data and cybersecurity challenges, and win-win cooperation is the only way forward, when digital economy has become a new engine for global growth.
"Notably, the Chinese proposition that highlights equality, inclusiveness, and mutual trust is offering new ideas and paradigms for global digital governance," he added.
Source: Global Times:
Company: Global Times
Contact Person: Anna Li
Email: editor@globaltimes.com.cn
Website: https://globaltimes.cn
City: Beijing
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