Pioneer of China's internet honored at Wuzhen Summit

As the 2025 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit opened on Friday in the water town in Zhejiang province, five individuals and 14 enterprises were named as winners of the annual Distinguished Contribution Award. The WIC award celebrates breakthroughs in global internet development and governance.

Among this year's honorees was Qian Hualin, a pioneer of China's internet who played a key role in integrating the country into the global network system. ZTE, Tencent and Ant Group stood out as the only companies to win the award for the second year running — a sign of China's growing influence in the digital innovation arena.

Launched last year, the Distinguished Contribution Award honors individuals and organizations that have made transformative and inclusive contributions to the internet's evolution. Almost 200 applicants from around the world were considered for recognition this year, covering fields from artificial intelligence and communications to healthcare and finance.

Qian, one of the leading architects behind China's early internet infrastructure, spearheaded the development of the nation's domain name systems, both national and Chinese-language. His work, as noted in the award citation, helped make "China's digital presence ever clearer and stronger on the global stage".

Other individual awardees included Robert Kahn, co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocol and widely known as "the Father of the Internet"; Werner Zorn, Germany's own "Father of the Internet", who assisted in China's early domain setup and helped connect it to the global internet community; Jun Murai, Japan's "Father of the Internet", credited with introducing the first root server to the Asia-Pacific region; and Lacina Kone, director general and CEO of Smart Africa, recognized for driving digital transformation across the African continent.

In the enterprise category, Ant Group's Ant Misuan was recognized for its innovation in end-to-end privacy-preserving computation using encrypted data. ZTE was cited for advances in "connectivity + computing power" technologies, while Tencent was honored for weaving charitable giving into everyday life — a nod to its ongoing effort to fulfill diverse social responsibilities in the digital age.