The fate of the Internet is beginning to turn into a confrontation between the United States and China within the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), one of the agencies of the United Nations (UN). “The ITU was led for years by a Chinese national [Houlin Zhao, secrétaire général de 2015 à 2022] and, thus, the influence of China remains notable », notes Brunessen Bertrand, researcher and professor at Rennes-I University. With more than 1 billion Internet users, a world record, the Middle Kingdom wants to influence the future directions of the “network of networks”.
At the ITU, where the American Doreen Bogdan-Martin succeeded Houlin Zhao in the strategic position of secretary general in January, China is more in tune with the UN. This advocates “tripartite” governance (governments, private sector and civil society), where States would have more control over “their” Internet than currently. One of the technological challenges lies in the IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) addressing protocol, which allows even more devices and objects to be connected to the Internet. Problem: the old IPv4, still dominant worldwide, has been saturated since November 2019 – limited to 4.3 billion 32-bit Internet addresses. Hence the imperative to migrate the entire Internet to the IPv6 protocol with 128-bit addresses, which is 4 billion times larger than IPv4.
Weigh in against Washington
This is where Beijing wants to influence Washington. China wants to be “100% IPv6” in 2030 and is campaigning with other states (notably African and Middle Eastern) for an evolution towards its IPv6 Enhanced (IPv6 +), in order to better “control” the future Internet network. From there to weaving its digital “new silk road” across the planet, there is only one step, or rather a “Great Leap Forward”.
Developed over thirty years by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet engineering working group within the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), IPv6 must evolve to meet the challenges technological challenges posed by billions of mobile connections (4G-5G and, soon, 6G), very high speeds, artificial intelligence, connected objects and even cyberattacks. The ITU works closely with the IETF.
The Chinese telecoms manufacturer Huawei – in Washington’s crosshairs – has been promoting IPv6+ there since the Shenzhen firm became a member of the IETF in April 2020. China wants to act as a counterweight to the United States, with the IETF-IAB being placed under the control of the Internet Society, based in Reston, in the state of Virginia.
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