China's leading Internet security and informatization group will make tremendous efforts in developing the country's own cyber technologies, in a bid to fence off information leaks to the United States, an insider said.

Wang Yukai, a public administration professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said the Central Internet Security and Informatization Leading Group plans to bolster China's cyber security with new technologies and eventually replace some current ones that were developed by other countries.

"Information security is so important. Transferring vital information through devices and technologies made by others is like leaving key information in a wasteland," he said.

In 2012, Wang sat on a committee that drafted a plan to develop China's Internet security. The plan was touted by the committee as "national strategy" and submitted to the central government.

Wang said the plan recommended appointing the president as head of the group, instead of the premier.

The group's first meeting was held in Beijing on Thursday, Xinhua News Agency reported, with President Xi Jinping presiding as the group's head.

With the country's top leader as its head, the group is the highest ranked national Internet body.

"The State leader, who is also head of the Communist Party of China and the country's military, has stronger influence inside the Party, legislature and army," Wang said.

He added that nine out of 12 of the Internet's root servers are based in the US, and stronger security measures are needed to ensure the protection of information.

"After the Snowden issue came to light, how could we assume that our e-mails and phone calls are not checked before they're routed through the server?"

Apart from strengthening cyber security, Wang said the group also will help build an information-based society, which will aid in the development of e-commerce, e-governance, smart cities and the country's own Internet systems.

In January, China released the China OS, the country's own operating system, which is believed to be more secure than Google's Android and Apple's iOS systems.

By the end of 2013, China reported it had 618 million Internet users.

zhaoyinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 03/03/2014 page6)