Jointly sponsored by the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Guangzhou Law Society and Alibaba Group, the Internet Research and Governance Forum on New Cybercrime was convened in Guangzhou, on January 4th, 2020. The forum had an extensive presence of not only experts and scholars from universities and research institutions across China, but also representatives of various law enforcement departments in Guangzhou. Three UCASS scholars, Prof. Lin Wei, Vice president of UCASS, Prof. Li Weihong and Lecturer Fang Jun, also contributed to the great gathering with their respective presentations.
The forum was unveiled by the insightful remarks delivered by Mr. Xie Xiaodan, Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of CPC on Political and Legal Affairs and President of Guangzhou Law Society; Prof. Lin Wei, and Mr. Yu Zhihao, Senior Director of Alibaba Group.
In his opening address, Prof. Lin Wei noted that while advancement in the Internet and IT technologies remains an engine for economic and social prosperity, it has also brought about increasingly serious cyber-crimes. Quite recently, new grounds were gained on criminal legislation with substantial revisions on cyber-crime provisions. To build up tools available under the rule of law, targeted criminal judicial interpretations and typical cases were issued by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) of China one after another to combat cyber-crimes. However, there are still missing links and backwardness when it comes to this legal endeavor, requiring legislation and judiciary to catch up with the technological progress more promptly. It involves not only changing mindset to respond to and deliver protection of legal interests in a timely manner that live up to the fast-evolving world of the Internet, but also modernization of the functions of criminal law through better balance between principles and flexibility as the judiciary follows through on the legally prescribed penalty. These were also some of the most deliberated topics in the discussions and paper submissions throughout the forum, speaking volumes for the academic excellence and practicality of the forum. All of these boiled down to concerted efforts made by the forum through academic research and practice-sharing to facilitate capacity building on governance and modernization of governance system.
Divided into three thematic sessions, the forum delved into research on cyber-crimes committed by organized criminal groups, cyber-crimes of the underground economy as well as conundrums in applicability of charges on cyber-crime, with scholars’ and legal professionals’ keynote speeches and contributions on various topics.
A wide range of talks and academic presentations were made by esteemed guest speakers, including Mr. Xie Xiaodan, Mr. Yu Zhihao, Prof. Che Hao, Deputy Dean of Peking University Law School; Prof. Shi Yan'an from Law School of Renmin University of China; Prof. Zhang Zetao, Dean of Law School of Guangzhou University and PhD Supervisor; Prof. Wang Zhiyuan, Deputy Dean of School of Criminal Justice of China University of Political Science and Law.
On the sidelines of the forum, Prof. Li Weihong and Lecturer Fang Jun from UCASS were both invited to take on researchers' roles at the Criminal Research Center on Emerging Crimes of Guangzhou Law Society.
