Internet sovereignty and trusting intellectuals

Recently President Xi Jinping made some strong statements that some in the West take to be contradictory. On the one hand, Xi called for "internet sovereignty", so the Chinese government can regulate what its citizens can and cannot access online. On the other hand, Xi asked officials to "trust intellectuals, welcome their criticism and try not to interfere in their creative work".

Exploring the temporal proximity of these two big ideas - which is unlikely a coincidence - may discern the depth of Xi's thinking.

Regarding internet sovereignty, while it feels good to proclaim that the internet should be open and free and without the impedance of international borders or national controls, the world just doesn't work that way. The more deeply the internet becomes enmeshed in the economic and social fabric of contemporary life, the more intensely nations are extending their regulating powers so that the rules of the actual world apply in the virtual world.