US demands internet transparency in China
Updated
China appears to be playing down its dispute with internet company Google - and its implications for already strained relations with the US. The signal has come as the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Beijing to conduct a thorough and transparent review of cyber intrusions against the internet giant, which has led it to threaten to leave China.
Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra correspondent
Speakers: Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State; Kaiser Kuo, internet watcher based in Beijing;
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MOTTRAM: In a speech in Washington Hillary Clinton warned of a new information curtain descending across much of the world, likening attempts to disrupt and censor the internet to the Berlin Wall, and echoing Chinese bloggers description of a Great Firewall in their country.
CLINTON: We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas.
MOTTRAM: She said countries that try to curb the internet are contravening the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights and its guarantee of freedom of information. And, on the issue of cyber spying in China specifically, the trigger for internet giant Google's threat to get out of that country, Secretary Clinton said there should be consequences for countries or individuals who engage in cyber attacks. In an interconnected world, she said, an attack on one nation's networks can be an attack on all - internet freedom supported peace and security. And she called on China to act in the Google case.
CLINTON: And we look to the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review of the cyber intrusions that led Google to make its announcement. And we also look for that investigation and its results to be transparent.
MOTTRAM: The Secretary of State also listed a range of US internet freedom initiatives aimed at harnessing what she called the power of connection and applying it to US diplomatic goals. The Clinton speech is likely to be celebrated by those for whom any departure by Google from China will have major costs. Kaiser Kuo is an American based in Beijing who closely observes China's 338-Million strong community of 'netizens' and the restrictions they face. In a recent interview for the Lowy Institute's blog, The Interpreter, Kaiser Kuo said as well as the matter of principle, the Google China matter had practical implications, should Google actually leave China.
KUO: This pullout you know it's getting all sorts of praise in the West and from liberals here in China but think about us, the ordinary internet users who rely on Google to use all these Google services that could very well end up on the other side of the Great Firewall.
MOTTRAM: This is where Hillary Clinton's plans are pitched. But where China and Google are concerned, the situation remains murky and China's response has been minimal. Kaiser Kuo speculates Google may have some good evidence to back its hacking claims against China. And among the range of responses from China, he thinks concessions are possible.
KUO: I imagine a couple of scenarios - one is just simply the ostrich scenario where they're just not even publicly address this. Allow Google to continue unmolested - they'd never come out and say that but that is a possible outcome. Another would be that they would publicly browbeat Google and then do nothing. The other option is that they'll part ways in the most acrimonious way imaginable.
MOTTRAM: But as Hillary Clinton seeks to harness the net to US diplomatic goals, particularly through such phenomena as social networking - so-called Web 2.0 sites - Kaiser Kuo has also observed a change in China's approach to censorship.
KUO: No longer do they care about the Web 1.0 sites. They now care primarily about Web 2.0 sites. They seem to be much more concerned with internal dissemination of information, with communication, with the ability to organise - that they realise is much much more potentially destabilising than just allowing negative news reports about China to come in from outside.
MOTTRAM: That could mean US internet diplomacy runs up hard against China. After very little official comment on the Google dispute from Beijing, there has now been a hint that China wants to play it down. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafie is quoted by Xinhua newsagency as telling Chinese reporters that the Google incident should not be linked to bilateral relations - that that would be over-interpreting it.
