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Battle of the Superpowers: Google vs. China
Johanna Hoopes | Saturday 30th January 2010
 China's larger than life economy is leading the world out of recession. Its exports are nearing 10% of the global total, its population represents one fifth of the world, and its domestic consumption rate is sky high. Yet, for a global power, China is still in many ways an anomaly. Historically China's strong state protected the Asian giant from western military expeditions, warlords and foreign invasions. With a constant stream of merchants seeking high-quality products such as silk porcelain and tea, China learned that trade relations were inextricably linked with geo-political power. In the 21st century, China's state-driven production and export model made it a world player, which in turn brought pressures for reform of the country's strict commercial policies. Although outside investors have become increasingly comfortable putting their money into joint ventures, strategic industries like like telecommunications, high-tech and energy have faced tougher constraints.Accessing the rapidly growing 300 million user market (with nearly a billion potential users still to come) is no small feat, even for China's homegrown internet service, baidu.cn. As the price of admission, the Chinese government insists that Google, Yahoo, and the rest, co-operate in limiting access to certain sites. Barred websites include any content regarding Chinese human rights, religious freedom campaigners like the Falun Gong and minorities like Tibetans or Uighurs. Oh, and most importantly, Facebook! Since the inception of its China site (google.cn) in 2005, Google has repeatedly clashed with the Chinese government on what material should be filtered. When sensitive content was searchable, the company's service was blocked for hours or even days. When it became clear that Google email accounts had been repeatedly hacked for months through phishing expeditions for information on account user activity the market leader was forced to take a stand. The sophisticated attacks were revealed to be a high level espionage program aimed at obtaining high-tech information and politically sensitive information. They targeted security flaws to gain entry into the internal networks of some major financial, defense and technology companies and research institutions in the U.S. In some cases, the illegal program can even turn on a Webcam or computer microphone to record what is going on in the room without the victim's knowledge. By taking a stand against Chinese censorship, Google is setting a precedent for tech companies entering China. While China has branded itself as a booming economy ripe for investment and innovation, Google has revealed that its controlling political system is not ready to face a modern world chock full of uncensored content. China may win the battle against Google but it cannot win the war over the internet unless it embraces the dangers and possibilities of free flowing information. |
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Johanna Hoopes Is blogging |
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