ICANN is the highest decision-making body in the Internet world, and it is located in the United States. However, according to Qian Hualin, a Chinese scientist and board member of ICANN, it is the most open, fair, and transparent organization he has ever seen.
Qian Hualin never thought he would be so important, but many people insisted that because of him, China was able to curb the hegemony of American imperialism. In June 2003, Qian Hualin, a Chinese scientist, was elected as one of the board members of the International Internet Domain Name and Address Management Institution (ICANN). This sparked a heated debate on a well-known Chinese forum. The prevailing opinion, both in numbers and momentum, was: since ICANN is the highest decision-making body of the global Internet, and its functions were previously controlled by the US National Science Foundation before 1998, and since ICANN is still located in the US, the US should be the actual king of the digital world. Since Americans dominate everything, they will surely disadvantage all other countries, including China, when setting the rules for the Internet world. Now, with Qian Hualin, a Chinese, becoming one of the 13 board members of ICANN, China has voting rights when setting policies, so at least the Americans won't have it so easy when trying to expand their hegemony and invade China's interests! Is it really like that? Qian Hualin, aged 64, shook his head and laughed while being interviewed by Economic Magazine: "It's not true! Impossible!"
The Americans voluntarily "surrendered power" Few people know about ICANN, even though hundreds of millions of people can no longer live without the Internet. In fact, this institution has unimaginable power. For example, if you are an avid internet user and want to apply for an IP address to build a webpage, where do you go to apply for the address? Who is responsible for allocating the address to you? The answer is ICANN. Of course, you don't directly contact the institution in the US; you contact your local management department. However, if ICANN does not allocate domain names to your country, then you cannot establish your own webpage either. As an avid internet user, can you tolerate that?
ICANN started operations in 1998, and its basic powers include four main areas: operating and managing root servers, managing the domain name system, allocating Internet addresses, and assigning and managing protocol numbers. Before ICANN was established, the US National Science Foundation contracted an organization to handle these tasks, monopolizing the Internet world. After ICANN was established, its responsibilities became clearly defined: these four areas, and anything beyond them is not handled. "Some issues were debated endlessly, and ICANN felt it was inappropriate to manage them," said Qian Hualin. A prominent example is spam email management. An organization proposed that ICANN should be responsible for clearing it up, which initially gained consensus from a subordinate organization of ICANN. However, it failed to pass during the board vote because "the primary responsibility of this institution is to use network resources reasonably, and besides, it involves 'private tampering' of letters, challenging human privacy."
Hearing about this incident, ICANN became more clearly aware that any voting proposal submitted based on political or ideological considerations would be "ignored altogether." For example, the spread of unhealthy content online, committing crimes through the Internet, stealing and destroying others' property through the Internet, spreading viruses, etc., cannot expect ICANN to handle them. The predecessor of ICANN was a team of technicians, and the US government's National Science Foundation invested several million dollars annually. Later, the Americans found it unprofitable, "Why should I pay for the whole world?" Moreover, since the US government was funding it, many countries complained: "Why should one person manage the affairs of the whole world?" Of course, since the Internet was invented by Americans, placing the management institution in the US seemed reasonable, but having all the power concentrated in American hands made other countries dissatisfied.
Feeling "unappreciated despite hard work," the US government decided to change its approach. Thus, the US Department of Commerce requested the establishment of a non-profit organization to manage the global Internet, which is now ICANN. After ICANN was established, the US Department of Commerce signed a memorandum of understanding with it, handing over and "transferring power." It is said that when "transferring power," the US Department of Commerce had only one condition: ensuring the normal operation of the network and avoiding major incidents. Beyond that, what to do and how to do it was left entirely up to ICANN.
Sources of Power How does ICANN, having lost financial support from the US government, obtain its funding? The largest source of income comes from domain registrars and address allocation agencies. For example, generic top-level domain registrars like ".COM", ".NET", etc. China's domain is ".CN". Qian Hualin said that although China has not yet signed an agreement with them, it still pays $10,000 annually. "As a donation," Qian Hualin explained.
Since there are certain rules for fund distribution and it is relatively balanced among countries, without any one dominating like in the United Nations, ICANN seems to have successfully prevented "one-man rule." According to Qian Hualin, ICANN is the most transparent, open, and public organization he has ever seen. "They are very careful in their actions," Qian Hualin said.
The organizational structure of ICANN is such that the top level consists of a board of directors made up of 13 board members who make decisions, each serving a term of 1-3 years. Some board members are selected globally by ICANN's special election committee, while others are nominated by various subordinate organizations of ICANN, such as the Domain Support Organization. These board members do not have voting rights. Among the 13 board members of this session, they come from the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. There are two from Africa, two from the Asia-Pacific region, one being Qian Hualin and the other a government official recommended by one of ICANN's subordinate government advisory committees from Malaysia. The remaining nine members come from the US and Europe.
Below the board are more than 20 associations and organizations, such as the Government Advisory Committee and the Address Support Organization. Below them are general membership organizations representing ordinary internet users.
Qian Hualin introduced that the decision-making principle is bottom-up. If lower-level associations or committees propose a decision, it generally goes through extensive discussion. "Only after all members reach a relatively consistent opinion is it submitted to the board, which can veto or approve it."
However, this sounds easier said than done. First, gathering opinions is a massive task, and secondly, "if there is even 10% controversy or harm to other associations' interests, the board usually will not approve it," emphasized Qian Hualin.
Members can clearly see the process of gathering opinions.
Qian Hualin said that before submitting decisions, each association must gather opinions from all parties involved and only within their professional responsibilities. Therefore, as long as the process goes smoothly, the council votes and approval "generally have no major problems."
However, although the board has decision-making power, to constrain power, board members cannot propose motions. "As a board member, I cannot suggest what I hope or think should be done," said Qian Hualin.
Qian Hualin obviously admires this power structure and procedure greatly. In one of his reports, he highly praised ICANN: each member does not represent their own country or a particular region or unit's interest but rather manages the Internet from the perspective of global internet users to make it run more stably. In commercial society, many cases of bullying occur. Our responsibility is to balance the interests of all sides and make the rules fairer, more equitable, and more transparent. Advocating a decision that only benefits our board members is impossible.
Eliminating Inequity Indeed, before ICANN was established, the US, which controlled Internet technology and power, once refused to connect China to its network.
What left a deep impression on Qian Hualin was in 1992 when the Zhongguancun demonstration network was completed but found to be useless. There was little information on the network, and few people were online. The Zhongguancun area was small, and sometimes sending an e-mail was less convenient than riding a bicycle. The usage rate was low. It seemed inevitable to connect with foreign networks. Although there were many difficulties with funding, channels, and procedures, more importantly, the US at that time did not want China to connect. In June 1992, Qian Hualin attended the Internet annual meeting in Japan, where he met the director in charge of international networking at the US National Science Foundation. This director said that the reason for rejecting China was that US defense departments and other government agencies were connected inside, fearing leaks of secrets.
However, what Qian Hualin did not expect was that many foreign scientists spoke out for China, continuously writing letters to the White House. Qian Hualin and his colleagues persuaded each department one by one. At the 1993 Internet annual meeting held in San Francisco, Qian Hualin again met the director in charge of international networking and continued lobbying. After the meeting, there was a conference of the International Network Coordination Committee, and the issue of China joining the network was unanimously agreed upon by scientists from various countries. The head of a department at a US university who did not attend the annual meeting specially traveled from his hometown to San Francisco, accompanying Qian Hualin for three days, finding some senior experts in the Internet field and officials in management to persuade them. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation also worked using various platforms.
After much effort, by the end of 1993, the US National Science Foundation sent a letter agreeing for China to connect to the Internet. In early 1994, during the Sino-US Bilateral Science and Technology Joint Conference, the Chinese delegation of scientists met with officials from the US National Science Foundation, officially finalizing the matter.
And this happened before ICANN was established. Such events would not happen now under ICANN.