Misblog

Originally Published January 12, 2010; Last Updated May 03, 2010; Last Republished April 20, 2010:

Google is no longer willing to serve the China market while aiding and abetting the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) censorship of the Internet.

Discussions are ongoing, but given the CCP's recent efforts to tighten its grip on the Internet, it's likely Google will be leaving China, if temporarily.

Some in China have begun to debate whether China wants a civil society with universal characteristics or a CCP dictatorship with Chinese characteristics.

The recently increased Internet restrictions by the CCP are its initial efforts to gain an advantage and control that debate.

If the CCP thought their restrictive efforts would succeed there'd be no need to hack and attack Google or target Chinese human rights activists' accounts.

Res:

• Google, A new approach to China.

Blog:

• UPDATED 05/03/2010 DefenseTech, China Demands Computer Encryption Codes From Cyber Security Firms.
• UPDATED 01/15/2010 ChinaScope, ChinaScope 39: Google's fight in China. Adds some context and perspective.

• UPDATED 01/14/2010 CDT, “It’s Not Google that’s Withdrawing from China; It’s China that’s Withdrawing from the World” (Updated with Photos).

  Unfortunately, the posting title maybe all too prescient. The community of nations must do everything possible to convince China that hiding behind walls is no longer an option.

Web:

• UPDATED 04/27/2010 NYT, China Moves to Tighten Data Controls.
• UPDATED 04/20/2010 UPI, Google Internet raid began in China.

• UPDATED 03/22/2010 NYT, Google Shuts China Site in Dispute Over Censorship.

  Kudos to Google for discontinuing its participation in China's communist party (CCP) increased censorship of our Internet.

  “We were looking at an environment that is more difficult than it was when we started,...Far from our presence helping to open things up, it seems that things are getting tighter for open expression and freedom.”--NTY quoting Google's chief legal officer David Drummond--

  Hopefully the CCP will reverse its recent trend toward increased censorship and repression of China's dissidents.

• UPDATED 03/05/2010 Reuters, Beijing says working with Google to resolve dispute.

  • UPDATED 03/10/2010 LAT, Google wants U.S. to include Internet freedom in trade agreements

    Google's Deputy General Counsel Nicole Wong urges (pdf) lawmakers (House Committee Foreign Affairs Hearing) to incorporate free (frictionless) Internet information flows into our trade agreements—a most excellent idea.

• UPDATED 02/26/2010 NYT, Hacking Inquiry Puts China’s Elite in New Light.

• UPDATED 02/24/2010 Reuters, China says Google hacking claims "groundless".

  Hey Qin Gang, you'll want to at least make some pretense toward investigating the allegations before informing us China does everything by the law and chefs can't write software code.

• UPDATED 02/18/2010 NYT, Two Chinese Schools Said to Be Tied to Online Attacks.

• UPDATED 02/12/2010 NYT, China Alarmed by Security Threat From Internet.

  One of the significant benefits of building and maintaining a civil society is that the nation gets methods for dealing with rumors, splits, and discord for free!

  Otherwise the nation must waste considerable resources building, maintaining, and managing the coercive, repressive, and corrupt machinery needed to control "rumors", "splits", and "discord" to impose a "harmonious" society.

  The resources are wasted because the oxymoronic and Sisyphean effort to impose harmony eventually fails, inflicting great harm in the process¹.

• UPDATED 02/04/2010 WP, Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks.

  It appears Google is in the process of finalizing a non-disclosure agreement with our spy agency (NSA) that will share the raw digital debris and system environment related to the recent China hacking of their system (Aurora cyber-attacks).

  The joint effort is likely aimed at developing a fingerprint of the attack, which can then be used in response to future cyber-threats.

  Needless to say the teaming arrangement raises may questions not the least of which is what digital forensic capabilities are found at the NSA that aren't better obtained elsewhere? Given Google’s dominant technical and market position it may be getting help from a competent benign partner (from Google’s perspective) than the best malignant one?

  Given Google’s hyper sensitivity to users and its motto "Don't be evil" we can expect a lot more explanation in the near future.

• UPDATED 02/03/2010 BBC, Net firms quizzed on China plans.

  Durbin sends letter to technology firms regarding Internet freedom in China.

• UPDATED 01/30/2010 USDoS, Remarks at the International Conference on Afghanistan [included a question on China-Google Internet].

  Our nation is very fortunate indeed to have this Secretary of State at this time in our short history.

  "...I [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] raised the issue, as you would have expected I did, on the Google and internet freedom front. China has its approach. Obviously, they feel strongly that they are much more open than perhaps they’re getting credit for. We expressed – I expressed my concerns that we don’t want to create a series of actions that in any way impinges on the freedom and utility of the internet. But it was a very open, candid conversation. We agreed we will continue to discuss this matter in the context of our ongoing dialogue...."--Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--

• UPDATED 01/23/2010 Reuters, Bill Gates says Internet needs to thrive in China.

  It's difficult to determine whether Microsoft's chairman is being disingenuous, opportunistic, or just censorship apologist for China's communist party.

  Hopefully Microsoft's chairman will provide his definition of limited in the coming days—many would not refer to China’s censorship as limited.

  It should also be pointed out that it is not just censorship that is at issue but illegal cyber-attacks and exploits involving Microsoft's Internet browser (see Microsoft tackles 17-year old bug; perhaps a warning label "use at your own risk" is in order).

  Most would not disagree that China (and all nations) must have a thriving Internet—preferably with zero to minimal content censorship.

• UPDATED 01/23/2010 Reuters, China says it needs no Internet lessons from U.S..

  ...well, Mr. Min Dahong with all due respect you do need lessons on not engaging in censorship of the global Internet.

  A country by connecting to the global Internet (as opposed to non-global intranets) incurs certain minimum obligations, among them, minimum friction on information flows and freedom of expression, not engaging in or sponsoring cyber-attacks or cyber-warfare....

• UPDATED 01/21/2010 Reuters, China downplays Internet feud with United States and United States Department of State, Internet Freedom, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

  One can certainly understand China's assertion that the "Google Incident" shouldn't be linked to our bilateral relationship.

  However, the international process of acquiring intellectual property and gaining access to frictionless information flows goes to the very heart of our bilateral relationship.

  "...And censorship should not be in any way accepted by any company from anywhere. And in America, American companies need to make a principled stand. This needs to be part of our national brand. I’m confident that consumers worldwide will reward companies that follow those principles.....No nation, no group, no individual should stay buried in the rubble of oppression. We cannot stand by while people are separated from the human family by walls of censorship. And we cannot be silent about these issues simply because we cannot hear the cries...."--Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--

• UPDATED 01/20/2010 Reuters, U.S. has met with China on Internet freedom: official.
• UPDATED 01/17/2010 NYT, After Google’s Stand on China, U.S. Treads Lightly.

• UPDATED 01/16/2010 Reuters, Yahoo pulled into Google fracas, Alibaba reacts.

  Why isn't every American and democratic based company speaking out on behalf of Google—it's not like we do not know how unconstrained authoritarian-totalitarian leaning regimes end.

  Do theses companies suppose in an era of the Internet and Wikileaks they can secretly aid and abet China's authoritarian regime for gain?

• UPDATED 01/15/2010 Reuters, U.S. to send formal message [demarche] to China on Google case.

  Formally puts frictionless information flow (hacking is one form of friction), and Internet on China-U.S. track I radar.

• UPDATED 01/14/2010 Reuters, U.S. backs Google in China spat, seeks explanation.
• Reuters, Google says may pull out of China after Web attacks.

-----notes-----

1. Of course civil society leadership can also inflict great harm on a nation—witness the great harm inflicted on our nation by its previous leadership (two disastrous conflicts and an economic meltdown).

However, in a civil society leadership replacement and corrective action is relatively immediate and swift, thereby mitigating and containing the harm.