China rebuffs Clinton's criticism of internet censorship:"Our internet is open!"

[Syt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/world/asia/23china.html

China Rebuffs Clinton on Internet Warning

WASHINGTON — Tensions between China and the United States over Internet policy deepened Friday, with the Chinese government accusing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of jeopardizing relations between the two countries with her criticism of Chinese censorship.

The Obama administration said it stood by Mrs. Clinton's words and repeated its demand that Beijing provide a more detailed response to Google's allegations that its computer network had been infiltrated by hackers based in China. But the United States held off lodging a formal diplomatic protest, suggesting that administration officials were still uncertain about how hard to push China on the matter.

"We have serious concerns about what has happened here," said the State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley. "We have serious concerns that someone in China has targeted human-rights activists."

Beijing and Washington both initially tried to treat the Google case as mainly a commercial dispute. But Mrs. Clinton's speech on Internet freedom on Thursday, with its cold war undertones, has catapulted the dispute from the realm of technology and cybersecurity to one of fundamental freedoms. China's strongly worded response suggests that the tensions could spill over into other areas where the administration is eager for Chinese cooperation, including climate change and curtailing Iran's nuclear program.

Even as the United States hardened its tone about defending Internet freedom, however, it has compiled an uneven record in helping those who try to get around Internet barriers or in hindering companies that sell technology enabling China and other countries to erect barriers.

The State Department has yet to give financial support to one of the best-known initiatives to circumvent Internet censorship, a group affiliated with the religious sect Falun Gong, which is banned in China as an illegal cult. Nor has the United States imposed a strict export ban on American companies that manufacture sophisticated networking equipment that can be used to filter the Web.

Administration officials say they are exploring these and other options. And an official at the Commerce Department said the United States did ban the export of blocking technology on a case-by-case basis.

"There isn't a silver bullet for this," said Michael H. Posner, an assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.

For now, the dispute is mostly on the level of words. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, in a statement posted Friday on its Web site, called on the United States "to respect the truth and to stop using the so-called Internet freedom question to level baseless accusations."

In her speech, Mrs. Clinton listed China as one of several countries that constrain Internet freedom and act against bloggers and others who push for political change. She backed Google's refusal to accept censorship of its Chinese-language search engine, challenging all companies to resist "a new information curtain" descending across much of the world.

Mrs. Clinton's speech, which was closely watched in diplomatic circles, was the first time a senior American official had articulated a vision for making the Internet an integral part of foreign policy.

Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in the statement that the criticism leveled by Mrs. Clinton was "harmful to Sino-American relations," adding, "the Chinese Internet is open."

The Obama administration said it had held at least three meetings with Chinese diplomats to voice its concerns.

Last week, a senior administration official said the United States would lodge a diplomatic démarche — a move often used to express protest — against China within days. On Friday, Mr. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said that a démarche remained a possibility, but that the United States would wait for a response from China on the Google case.

The State Department said it was working in 40 countries to encourage people to circumvent restrictions on the Internet. Critics say it has moved slowly in spending $15 million appropriated in 2008 for such programs. In a letter sent to Mrs. Clinton on Wednesday, five senators, led by Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, said there was no evidence that the money had improved access to the Internet for Iranian protesters or other dissidents.

Critics also cite the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, a group linked to Falun Gong, which maintains computers in data centers around the world to route Web users' requests around censors' firewalls. The group has not gotten financing from the State Department, which its supporters say it needs to expand its service.

"There's some evidence that officials in the department are opposed to financing it out of fear of angering China," said Michael Horowitz, a fellow at the Hudson Institute who advises the consortium. Mr. Posner said the group would be considered for funds in the current round of proposals.

Some technology experts said the specific initiatives mattered less than Mrs. Clinton's message that the United States could no longer separate its political and commercial agendas in China. Clay Shirky, an expert on the Internet at New York University, said, "Now we're saying, more than just the dictates of commerce are going to be brought to bear."

In an editorial, the English-language edition of a Chinese newspaper, Global Times, said that the demand for an unfettered Internet was a form of "information imperialism," because less developed nations could not compete with Western countries in the arena of information flow.

One big question is whether ordinary Chinese will, to any large degree, accept China's arguments. Although urban, middle-class Chinese often support government policies on sovereignty issues such as Tibet or Taiwan, they generally deride media censorship.

That feeling is especially pronounced among Chinese who refer to themselves as netizens. China has the most Internet users of any country, 384 million by official count, but also the most sophisticated system of Internet censorship, nicknamed the Great Firewall.

And in a similar vein, the WP:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012201090.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Chinese government sharply criticizes Clinton's speech urging Internet freedom

BEIJING -- China's Foreign Ministry sharply criticized Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's call Thursday for broad Internet freedom, saying that the United States should "cease using so-called Internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China."

Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that "the U.S. has criticized China's policies on administering the Internet and insinuated that China restricts Internet freedom. We are firmly against words and deeds contrary to the facts and harmful to China-U.S. relations."

A Chinese newspaper also joined the criticism of Clinton, who delivered her speech after Google declared last week that it would stop censoring results on its Chinese-based search engine even if that meant losing its license. The announcement followed a cyberattack on the company's computers.

The Global Times said that the U.S. campaign "for uncensored and free flow of information on an unrestricted Internet is a disguised attempt to impose its values on other cultures in the name of democracy."

Clinton said that freedom on the Internet is closely linked to other basic freedoms, including freedom of speech, worship and assembly. She also said the U.S. government would support individuals and companies that help people in countries with restricted access to circumvent obstacles.

The Global Times said that less-developed countries cannot match the amount of information generated in industrialized countries such as the United States. As a result, it said, "countries disadvantaged by the unequal and undemocratic information flow have to protect their national interest, and take steps toward this. This is essential for their political stability as well as normal conduct of economic and social life."

Many Chinese bloggers took a more upbeat view of Clinton's stance. "Hillary's speech symbolizes that a free country has declared a war on dictatorship countries in the area of free speech," said Wen Yunchao, a Guangzhou-based blogger. "It might be as significant as the statement made by Churchill about the Iron Curtain."

But Rao Jin, founder of Access China Communication Network, a pro-government Web site, said: "Why do we have to accept the standard of the United States? The attitude of the U.S. is so arrogant. Clinton mentioned one Internet. Actually, it's the Internet of the United States. It's Google of the States."

[DGuller]

Good to know.  I was starting to get concerned with all the rumors about Chinese censoring the Internet.

[Josquius]

In an editorial, the English-language edition of a Chinese newspaper, Global Times, said that the demand for an unfettered Internet was a form of "information imperialism," because less developed nations could not compete with Western countries in the arena of information flow.

They're kind of admitting here less developed nation=less free nation...

[The Brain]

China. Can't live with it, where's the button?

[HisMajestyBOB]

I'd like to reassure everyone that China is clearly changing and reforming, so none of this matters because they'll become a liberal democracy any time now.

[DisturbedPervert]

I'm not really sure why they even bother to respond.  Just keep selling hundreds of billions of dollars of stuff to the US.

[Strix]

If Iran won't listen to the US why would China?

[Neil]

I'm not really sure why they even bother to respond.  Just keep selling hundreds of billions of dollars of stuff to the US.

National pride.  If somebody talks shit, they have to respond, or they will lose face.

[FunkMonk]

Chinese internet is open except on Sundays, because of God.

[Razgovory]

They sure like throwing around the word "imperialism" around like it's 1969.

[Eddie Teach]

I'm not really sure why they even bother to respond.  Just keep selling hundreds of billions of dollars of stuff to the US.

National pride.  If somebody talks shit, they have to respond, or they will lose face.

China is quite vain.

[HisMajestyBOB]

They sure like throwing around the word "imperialism" around like it's 1969.

Well, it is a pretty good game.

[HisMajestyBOB]

I'm not really sure why they even bother to respond.  Just keep selling hundreds of billions of dollars of stuff to the US.

National pride.  If somebody talks shit, they have to respond, or they will lose face.

China is quite vain.

It's because everyone called them fat and ugly throughout the 19th century.

[Neil]

I'm not really sure why they even bother to respond.  Just keep selling hundreds of billions of dollars of stuff to the US.

National pride.  If somebody talks shit, they have to respond, or they will lose face.

China is quite vain.

It's because everyone called them fat and ugly throughout the 19th century.

And the 20th.  And, although folks respect their economic power because of their numbers, Westerners still think of them as culturally and intellectually inferior, and rightly so.

[Duque de Bragança]

They sure like throwing around the word "imperialism" around like it's 1969.

Well, it is a pretty good game.

I prefer the sequel.