Chinese President ‘Backs’ Free Internet

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Wednesday that “freedom and order are both necessary in cyberspace,” even as the country notorious for its widespread censorship has put a free-speech advocate on trial for a series of online posts. “We should respect Internet users’ rights to exchange ideas and express their minds and we should also build good order in cyberspace in accordance with [the] law as it will help protect the legitimate rights and interests of all Internet users,” he said at an Internet conference in Beijing. Civil-rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, meanwhile, faces eight years in prison for seven critical postings on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.