World of Public Affairs » Internet

An Alternative View on China/Google

Bill Black — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:42:48 +0000

My friend, David Henderson, has a very interesting take on the China versus Google story. Without necessarily defending China, he bucks the trend of canonizing Google, and its supporters in the State Department, for its heroic stand.

On one hand, I’m not pleased that China censors news and information flow into and out across its borders. But, so does Iran and a number of other countries. Even India imposes levels of censorship. But … it is their country, and it’s up to the peoples of those respective countries to strive for change. Ms. Clinton has no business playing Kojak for U.S. special interests that want to dominate online marketing in foreign countries.

He makes the point that Google’s motives may not be entirely pure and, in fact, could be influenced by commercial interests more than principle. For my part, I think it’s a good thing that Google is rattling the cage in China. I suspect both sides of this argument are influenced by money, not principle. But China has shown a tendency to adopt the “values” of transparency and free speech only when its economic interests forces it to. To the extent Google is successful in applying such pressure, I wish them well, even if they’re only in it for the money.

U.S. State Department Works the Chinese Blogosphere

Bill Black — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:05:00 +0000

On Friday, the State Department held a briefing for Chinese bloggers to provide background on Secretary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom. Officials also invited questions from the bloggers. The event provides more nuance in the way the Chinese government handles criticism, both from within and without. During the briefing, the government issued a statement rejecting Secretary Clinton’s criticism of restraints on Internet communications. One of the bloggers received a tweet with the statement attached and posed a question. The immediacy of the communications was remarkable and demonstrates the challenges the Chinese government faces in exercising control over new media.

Clearly, at least one of these bloggers is not intimidated. His reaction to the briefing was, no doubt, exactly what the State Department had hoped:

After the meeting, another blogger, Zhou Shuguang, shared his impressions: “It shows that the U.S. government and Beijing have totally different ways of working. In the U.S., the government pays attention to public opinion and they know how to promote a policy through opinion leaders. That’s why they are now paying extensive attention to active Chinese Web users.”