BEIJING -- Huang Kunming, a senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official, stressed the importance of advanced culture and embracing the the spirit of the times in cyberspace at the China Internet Civilization Conference, which opened on Sunday in North China's Tianjin.

It is imperative that we promote excellence and virtues in cyberspace to pool the strength of more than 1 billion netizens in China, and inspire them to work hard and forge ahead in solidarity, said Huang, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee.

He made the remarks while addressing the conference via video link from Beijing.

China's cyberspace has shown increasing improvements, and efforts to improve ethical standards and advance civility in cyberspace have delivered notable progress since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, he told the conference.

Future efforts should focus on culture building, practice expansion and governance improvement, the official said. He highlighted the importance of promoting core socialist values and fostering awareness of civility among netizens, as well as a closer combination of governance and civility improvement in cyberspace.

The two-day conference was co-hosted by the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress, the CPC Tianjin Municipal Committee, and the Tianjin Municipal People's Government.

The first China Internet Civilization Conference was held in Beijing in 2021.