ICANN Engagement Center to Open In Beijing

ICANN President and Chief Executive Officer Fadi Chehadé announced today that the organization will open its first new global engagement office in Beijing.

“Engagement with China is not merely an option, we simply must engage at every level or we will lose our legitimacy,” said Chehadé. “This is part of our effort to embrace the world.”

The ICANN leader made the announcement during the welcoming session at ICANN’s 46th public meeting in Beijing – the largest meeting in the 15-year history of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

So far more than 2,100 people have so far show up for the Beijing meeting.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Nick Tomasso, ICANN’s Senior Director of Meetings. “Last year 1,821 showed up for our meeting in Prague in the Czech Republic which, until now, was our largest meeting. That record has now been broken and people are still arriving.”

The announcement of ICANN’s expanding presence in China was heralded by Chinese Internet leaders.

“Our Internet future will now be brilliant,” said Madam Hu Qiheng, the President of the Internet Society of China. “This is bridge for ICANN and China and it will lead to greater expansion of Internet development.”

ICANN Board Chair Dr. Stephen Crocker pointed out the dramatic growth of Internet users in China in the past decade.

“In the past decade, Internet use has increase ten fold,” said Crocker. “There are now 564 million Internet users in China and that is expected to climb sharply in the future.”

ICANN’s public meeting in Beijing will continue through the week.