China Slams Clinton's Call For Internet Freedom

CWmike writes "China on Friday slammed remarks made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promoting Internet freedom worldwide, saying her words harmed US-China relations. Clinton's speech and China's response both come after Google last week said it planned to reverse its long-standing position in China by ending censorship of its Chinese search engine. Google cited increasingly tough censorship and recent cyberattacks on the Gmail accounts of human rights activists for its decision, which it said might force it to close its offices in China altogether. On Thursday in Washington, DC, Clinton unveiled US initiatives to help people living under repressive governments access the Internet for purposes such as reporting corruption. The US will support circumvention tools for dissidents whose Internet connections are blocked, she said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu called for the US 'to respect the facts and stop using the issue of so-called Internet freedom to unreasonably criticize China.' China's laws forbid hacking attacks and violations of citizens' privacy, the statement said, apparently referring to the issues raised by Google."

Color me skeptical

[Third Position]

Google cited increasingly tough censorship and recent cyberattacks on the Gmail accounts of human rights activists for its decision, which it said might force it to close its offices in China altogether.

Maybe, but I wouldn't bet the ranch on it. [wsj.com]

QUIT PLAYING AROUND

[WindBourne]

Just boot China out of the WTO and drop their MFN with America. Look, CHina is NOT going to give freedom's to their citizens. Their move towards capitalism was to prevent their citizens from revolting. There is ZERO intention of ever restoring their freedoms. OTH, China is in a cold war with the rest of the west, and most likely with the world. Their goal is control. Even now, they had LEGAL obligations under MFN AND WTO, to which they have not honored any of it.

Re:China DDoS

[Anonymous Coward]

They have several nodes going over the border, but they are all under common governmental control and hooked up to identical centrally-managed censorship equipment. A mixture of DNS filtering, IP filtering, and stateless TCP resetting filters.

Google has BACKED DOWN in China

[hackingbear]

I have attempted to post the reports that Google has backed down in China and re-enabled Chinese search result filtering in Google.cn despite of the lack of real actions from the Chinese government [slashdot.org] in the few two days, but /. editors keep refusing to put this relevant in the front page. This story casts a doubt on Google's stance, motive and commitment. Right, how can we be critical of our new found American hero defending the precious "freedom" and fighting the "evil" China? How can a hero backing down to the evil? Hero can't make fundamental principle error, or you are not allowed to know when it does. How could the evil have not taken any real evil action on this particular matter? It would hurt our national morale, and so we should do self-censoring and forbidding to put it in the front page of any Western media outlet.

(Even your WSJ story does not mention that google has re-enabled filtering; while every Western media reported the (now temporary) suspension after Google announcement. It is oversea Chinese media that reported it and I picked up and verified with the exact same Chinese query [google.cn] I tried right after their temporary suspension back then.)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Finally! Youtube in China!

[iabill]

I am from America but live in China. You make good points about governmental control and such, but as always, it is a question of degree.I am over 50 and have experienced what you call to question in the States and can say that the governmental censorship in China is appalling cant compare to anything I have seen in the west. It reminds me of a dictatorial regime, trying to compare it to that of the USA is unreasonable.For instance, I attend university here and have Professors that have been censored by the Chinese government for discussion that they have had in class. That is today in 2010, not during the cultural revolution- these guys are followed as well to ensure they stay quiet. So, when we discuss this topic we must take a realistic look at the USA as well as China. Now, regarding your your claim about America in terms of wiretapping etc. They do, do this, all in the name of national security (supposedly). The benefit of the west or benefits, are the fact that you are aware of this, eventhough you are not an American, nor part of the government (transparency-1) I will address later, and that you can comment publicly on this matter without fear of reprisal from the government (as in present day China) or them treating you like a child- as you mention in your post "Don't people everywhere do the same thing with children...rules ...boundaries...to keep children cordon in an area... Make up stories like the Stork, Santa Claus,...they aren't ready for the truth?" To wit, the west does not treat one as a child, they are treated with a form of human rights that allows all to express their opinions- they are not protected by some state sponsored truth; it is assumed that they are mature and intelligent enough to make reasonable decisions- thus you have respect and a basic human right to knowledge. Secondly the issue of transparency. Yes the USA did and does some horrible things, but as stated, you hear of them,cover ups dont last long. Contrast this to China and all of the state sponsored deceit (too numerous to articulate). Thus, if and when the west or the USA does someting such as this, we are able to pursue it, discuss it, take action agains it- something that is impossible in China today.