China Digital Times

China news tagged with: Googlecn (61)

• China Issues Warning to Google’s Partners

  

  As the conflict between Google and the Chinese government continues without resolution, authorities have stepped up their warning to the company by reminding its web partners that they must continue with censorship even if Google does not. From the New York Times:

  Chinese government information authorities warned some of Google’s biggest Web partners on Friday that they should prepare backup plans in case Google ceases censoring the results of searches on its local Chinese-language search engine, said the expert, who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation by the government.

  The warning was the latest indication that two months of negotiations between Chinese officials and Google over government censorship have reached an impasse. The two sides have been at a standoff since Google announced in January that it planned to stop self-censoring the results of searches on its Chinese site, google.cn, in reaction to what it described as China-based cyber-attacks on its databases and e-mail accounts.

  The warning was intended to head off a wave of frustrated users should their internet searches be stymied because of Google’s conflict with the government. Google controls nearly 30 of China’s Internet search market.

  » Read more
  • March 14, 2010 1:39 PM

• Google ‘99% Certain’ to Shut China Search Engine

  

  The Financial Times has the latest in the ongoing saga of Google in China:

  Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now “99.9 per cent” certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking.

  In a hardening of positions on both sides, the Chinese government also yesterday threw down a direct public challenge to the US search company, with a warning that it was not prepared to compromise on internet censorship to stop Google leaving.

  The signs that Google was on the brink of closing Google.cn, its local search service in China, came two months after it promised to stop bowing to censorship there. But while a decision could be made very soon, the company is likely to take some time to follow through with the plan as it seeks an orderly closure and takes steps to protect local employees from retaliation by the authorities, the person familiar with its position said.

  The status of talks between Google and the Chinese government has been unclear following confusing and contradictory statements from both sides. Then, earlier this week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he thought the stand-off with the Chinese government over Internet censorship and cyber attacks would be resolved “soon” but that the company was still committed to ending censorship of its Chinese search engine. His remarks launched speculation that Google was preparing to leave the China market, which a Google spokesperson has since denied. Now, Li Yizhong, China’s minister of industry and information technology, has warned Google against opening Google.cn, the New York Times reports:

  Speaking on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress, China’s quasilegislative session, Mr. Li said that he hoped for an amicable resolution to the standoff. But he gave no indication that the government would ease the censorship rules that are at the heart of Google’s ultimatum.

  “I hope Google will abide by Chinese laws and regulations,” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Li as saying. But “if you want to do something that disobeys Chinese law and regulations, you are unfriendly, you are irresponsible and you will have to bear the consequences.”

  Whether the company chooses to remain in China, he added, is up to Google.

  Also from the Wall Street Journal, via PoliticalDog101.com:

  Google’s threat to stop censoring challenges the core premise of engagement with China for the last several decades: that the country is so big and its market so important that it must be accepted on its own terms.

  Google’s challenge to Beijing stunned the business world. It is unusual for a company to publicly take issue with China’s policies—particularly something as sensitive as censorship—and even rarer for one to talk about the possibility of scaling back its business or leaving a market that is so important.

  “If Google does indeed get shut down, it is not the end of the story—it is the beginning,” said Xiao Qiang, the director of the China Internet Project at University of California at Berkeley. It is the beginning of the ‘Chinternet,’ which is under Chinese government regulation. It will control so much that even Google cannot exist. Other companies will have to face the same choice of whether to continue to operate under China’s heavy regulation or leave the country.

  Read a report about Li’s statement from the Global Times. Read more about the Google dispute via CDT.

  » Read more
  • March 12, 2010 11:09 AM

• Minister: Google Must Obey Laws to Stay

  

  Cui Xiaohuo reports in the China Daily:

  Internet giant Google must obey Chinese law if it still wishes to continue to operate in the country, said Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology.

  “If Google still plans to continue its operations in China, it must abide by Chinese laws and respect the wills of Chinese Internet users,” the minister told reporters on Monday during a plenary session of the annual legislative meeting at the Great Hall of the People.

  Also from the PC World:

  The remarks came after ministry head Li Yizhong earlier said China was talking with Google to settle the row, according to Reuters, marking the first Chinese government confirmation of talks with the company.

  Li was not cited as giving details and his remark could have referred to talks between Google and a different branch of the Chinese government. But Chinese state media on Monday appeared further to play down Li’s statement by citing him declining to comment on whether authorities were still in talks with Google.

  “On this matter, Google knows it best itself,” he was quoted as saying in the state-run China Daily.

  Google did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

  The remarks by the IT vice minister appeared partly aimed at preventing harm from the Google row to U.S. ties. The Google problem is a “technical” one that “has not risen to the level of affecting China-U.S. relations,” Miao was cited as saying.

  » Read more
  • March 7, 2010 9:59 PM

• China to Punish Hackers, Says no Google Complaint

  

  Reuters reports:

  Google had never filed a report to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology over the cyber attacks or sought negotiations, Vice Minister Miao Wei was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua late on Saturday.

  “If Google has had evidence that the attacks came from China, the Chinese government will welcome them to provide the information and will severely punish the offenders according to the law,” Miao said.

  “We never support hacking attacks because China also falls victim to hacking attacks,” he said.

  Google also never informed the ministry that it was planning to withdraw from China, Miao added, speaking on the sidelines of the annual session of parliament.

  See also “China says no request yet from Google for talks” from AFP.

  » Read more
  • March 6, 2010 4:47 PM

• China’s Hacker Army

  

  Foreign Policy takes an in-depth look at the “chaotic” and dispersed world of Chinese hackers. The report argues that much of the western reporting on cyber attacks in China in light of the Aurora attack on Google mischaracterizes the hacker movement and assumes it is a centrally-controlled government effort:

  But a report released Tuesday by Atlanta security firm Damballa says the Aurora attack looks like work of amateurs working with unsophisticated tools. That revelation, along with a separate story in the Financial Times that a freelancer wrote the Aurora code, is focusing attention on China’s loose web of cowboy hackers. And SharpWinner — the leader of a coalition including anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 civilian members and, before he disappeared from public view in 2007, a regular participant in international cyberconflicts, including the 2001 hacker war stretching from China to the White House — is just the beginning.

  The Aurora attacks represented an attempt by hackers apparently based in China to steal valuable information from leading U.S. companies. (So far the list of victims includes Adobe Systems, the RAND Corporation, and Dow Chemical, in addition to Google. Over the weekend, a security researcher told Computerworld that Aurora might have penetrated more than 100 firms.) Investigators are still trying to understand where Aurora came from and what it means, but already some surprising clues have emerged. The Financial Times story followed on the heels of a New York Times story reporting that researchers have traced the attacks back to two Chinese universities, one of which has long been a training ground for freelance or “patriotic” hackers. Among the implications of these reports: The U.S. understanding of Chinese hacking is seriously out of date.

  Western media accounts typically overlook freelancers in favor of bluster about the Chinese government. Some pair breathy accounts of cyberwar with images dredged up from 1960s People’s Liberation Army propaganda, as if to suggest China has some centrally administered cyberbureau housing an army of professional hackers. Others make improbable or unsubstantiated allegations.

  A sidebar to the report includes a translation of “Selections from a hacker’s manifesto and how-to guide written by one of China’s preeminent hackers, Peng Yinan.”

  » Read more
  • March 3, 2010 9:48 PM

• Google Wants U.S. to Weigh Challenging China in WTO

  

  The Obama administration is considering taking China to the World Trade Organization for Internet censorship, calling it an “unfair barrier to trade.” Bloomberg reports:

  The U.S. Trade Representative’s office is consulting with industry groups about China’s Internet policies, spokeswoman Carol Guthrie said. Two groups with links to Google, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the First Amendment Coalition, have told the trade office that China’s restrictions on Web access and content discriminate against U.S. Internet companies and online commerce.

  “There is a little bit of a Cold War going on here,” said Michael DeGolyer, a professor of government and international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. “This is a way of putting pressure on China in a way that is going to be popular with many countries.”

  Going to the WTO is “well worth consideration,” Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel of Google, operator of the most popular Internet search site, told reporters after a congressional hearing in Washington yesterday. Using censorship “in a manner that favors domestic Internet companies goes against basic international trade principles,” Wong told lawmakers.

  At the congressional hearings today. Nicole Wong also said Google was still “weighing its options” on how to proceed in China after laying down an ultimatum over censorship of its Chinese search engine. See a report on the hearings from the LA Times blog.

  » Read more
  • March 2, 2010 9:58 PM

• New Scrutiny on Censorship Issues for U.S. Companies in China

  

  Following Google’s challenge to Chinese censorship and ahead of Senate hearings on the topic, the New York Times looks at how other foreign companies respond to requests to censor in China:

  Amazon’s U.S. headquarters declined to comment on the issue of censorship, saying only that the company was obliged to abide by the laws of the countries it which it operated. It does not, for example, sell Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in Germany, where the book is banned.

  But Amazon and other U.S. companies doing business in China are coming under new scrutiny from politicians and human rights groups since Google’s recent announcement that it planned to stop adhering to government demands that it censor search results in China and perhaps would pull out of the country. Google complained that the accounts of dissidents who use the company’s Gmail service had been infiltrated, apparently by Chinese hackers.

  The No. 2 leader in the U.S. Senate, Richard J. Durbin, has scheduled hearings for Tuesday on the issue of global Internet freedom. Mr. Durbin sent letters to 30 American information and technology companies, including Amazon, Apple, eBay and Verizon, requesting information on their business conduct in China and human rights practices.

  Representatives from Google and McAfee are among those scheduled to appear at the hearing.

  » Read more
  • March 1, 2010 10:05 PM

• Xinhua: China Cyber Attacks Against Google Pure Fabrication

  
  

  Image Source: Jiefang Daily

  Here is an official commentary from Xinhua:

  The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and some other newspapers have published articles indicating that cyber attacks targeting Google and several other U.S. companies were from China. Such allegations are arbitrary and biased.

  These articles take as evidence that hackers’ IP addresses could be traced back to two schools in China. However, it is common sense that hackers can attack by hijacking computers from anywhere in the world. This fact also explains why hackers are hard to be tracked down.

  Computers in China are easy to be hijacked by hackers as internet security technology and services are still underdeveloped in China. The majority of Chinese internet users also lack security awareness and adequate protection measures.

  The hackers’ IP addresses could by no means vindicate the newspapers’ allegations that the attacks were carried out by Chinese citizens or from within China.

  » Read more
  • February 23, 2010 12:49 PM

• Google Hack Smells More and More Like Chinese Government Job

  

  From Technewsworld:

  Relations between China and the United States have always been something of a “porcupine mating dance,” Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, told the E-Commerce Times.

  Specifically, China’s growing financial power and ambitions have often caused the U.S. government and businesses alike to “approach the relationship with kid gloves,” King explained.

  Yet China has acted in many cases as “anything but a global partner,” he pointed out. With all the issues of product safety and the roadblocks that the Chinese government has put before foreign companies, “it’s created an atmosphere where it’s simply very difficult for businesses to feel as though they’re being treated seriously” in the country.

  “My hat’s off to Google,” King said. “The Chinese may feel as though they can live without Google, and perhaps that’s the case from a practical standpoint, but having your market abandoned by a company with such a global brand and cachet is not a good indicator.”

  No one wants to “close the door on these opportunities, but at the same time no company can afford to have their intellectual property ransacked,” he concluded. “No market can afford to have one player that talks like a partner out of one side of its mouth and acts like a bandit out of the other.”

  Meanwhile, negotiations between Google and the Chinese government are ongoing, according to this CNet report.

  » Read more
  • February 22, 2010 11:23 PM

• People’s Republic of Hacking (Updated)

  

  The Wall Street Journal has a report about the world of hackers in China:

  When Google Inc. last month alleged that it and more than 20 other companies were breached in a cyberattack it traced to China, the attack, dubbed Aurora, appeared orders of magnitude more complex than the Panda attack. Unlike the Panda attack, which left a calling card and spread quickly and randomly, the perpetrators of Aurora targeted specific employees within the companies they attacked and went to great lengths to cover their tracks.

  There is no evidence thus far that the Google hack has any connection to the Panda’s pandemonium. What is clear is that Mr. Li learned his craft and launched his attack within a hacker network in China that remains an active and growing threat to global computer users.

  The identity, motivation and methods of Chinese hackers are rarely traceable. But based on interviews with security experts, forensic reports from independent tech firms, and the hackers themselves, the Panda case offers a rare window into how the underground world of Chinese hacking operates.

  …Investigators probing the Google matter still don’t know where it began but have been examining whether computers at China’s Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong Province were involved in the attacks, according to a person briefed on the matter. The New York Times reported Thursday that the attacks have been traced to computers at the two schools.

  Meanwhile, according to the China Daily, officials at the Lanxiang Vocational School have denied the school’s involvement in the cyber attacks:

  Li Zixiang from the Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong Province, said “investigations …found no trace the attacks originated from our school.”…

  Citing unidentified anonymous sources, the newspaper said trails led to Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School, which was created with military backing and trains some of its computer scientists.

  Update: On Feb. 21, Rong Lanxiang (荣兰祥), the Founder and the Chairman of the Board of the Lanxiang Vocational School made a public statement regarding the report in the New York Times. According to the Chinese media, Rong said: “The report (by NYT) is merely a fabrication. We do have students joining the PLA, but it is part of the national policy of military recruitment. Our computing center has more than 2000 computers, but this fact has nothing to do with Baidu. [The NYT report] said we have a military background, this is a joke. (他们纯属瞎编，我们是有学生入 伍，但这符合国家的兵役政策。我们的计算机房有2000多台机器，但这和百度一点关系没有。说我们有军方背景，简直是笑话。)”

  Does Lanxiang really not have any military background? CDT’s online investigation says just the opposite. In addition to the samples illustrated in the post earlier, here are more examples showing that Lanxiang does have strong connections to the PLA.

  (1) A long profile about Mr. Rong on Lanxiang School’s blog reveals this very background, translated by CDT:

  “In 1988, the PLA started the wave of entrepreneurial operations. Rong Lanxiang decisively grabbed this opportunity, using the platform of the the PLA, created Shandong Lanxiang Vocational School ”

  “1988年，部队掀起搞三产的热潮，荣兰祥果断抓住机遇，利用部队这一平台创建山东蓝翔职业技能培训学校。”

  (2)From Lanxiang School’s blog, translated by CDT:

  On December 25, 2009, the Lanxiang Vocational School party secretary Li Zixiang reported to a senior visiting PLA officer about the school’s work of training PLA officers over the years.

  (3) From hrbmzj.gov.cn

  Over the past five years, Lanxiang Vocational School has trained 3000 PLA soldiers, officers, veterans and their families.

  天桥区有一个旨在为退役士兵、优抚对象搭建就业平台的双拥培训基地，这就是山东蓝翔高级技工学校。近5年来，学校对近3000名部队官兵、退伍士兵、军嫂进行免费技能培训，安置转业干部53名、转业军人156名、军嫂25名。

  » Read more
  • February 20, 2010 10:46 AM

• Diverse Group of Chinese Hackers Wrote Code in Attacks on Google, U.S. Companies

  

  The Washington Post has more about the hacker attacks on Google and other corporations:

  It is not clear who ordered or coordinated the attacks. The Chinese government has denied involvement.

  The developers of the code, who took advantage of a vulnerability in systems using Internet Explorer 6, include students who “hack for prestige,” said one source, whose firm is among several investigating the attacks. He said investigators have narrowed the list of hackers to about six individuals but declined to divulge their names.
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  The code developers did not execute the attack or “nose around” in the networks of Google or other companies, he said. “They’re out in the open with it, passing the code back and forth to one another on open source hacker forums,” in some cases with their “hacker handles” attached, he said.

  None of the handful of code developers involved in the Internet Explorer part of the attack — there could be other code developers involved — is a graduate of the two Chinese schools, though they have links to them through people they are working with, the source said.

  » Read more
  • February 19, 2010 10:56 PM

• Two Chinese Schools Tied to Google Attacks Linked to the Great Firewall and PLA (Update3)

  

  An investigation into the cyber attacks on Google and other corporations has led to computers based at two universities in China, Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School. The New York Times reports:

  Computer security experts, including investigators from the National Security Agency, have been working since then to pinpoint the source of the attacks. Until recently, the trail had led only to servers in Taiwan.

  If supported by further investigation, the findings raise as many questions as they answer, including the possibility that some of the attacks came from China but not necessarily from the Chinese government, or even from Chinese sources.

  Tracing the attacks further back, to an elite Chinese university and a vocational school, is a breakthrough in a difficult task. Evidence acquired by a United States military contractor that faced the same attacks as Google has even led investigators to suspect a link to a specific computer science class, taught by a Ukrainian professor at the vocational school.

  Update: CDT’s further online investigation has found that, according to the school’s own website, the School of Information Security Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University is one of the main research units of the China’s “National Information Security Application Demonstration Project” “国家信息安全应用示范工程” – (code name S219) , and the Information Security Project* within the “National 863 Program**.” The school is “a training base for high-level Information Security experts in the national 863 production (east) base” (“国家863产业化（东部）基地信息安全高级专业人才培养基地”).

  And who are the trainers of these high-level information security experts? Here is just one example:

  Professor Li Jianhua (李建华), Deputy Dean of the School of Information Security Engineering. Research area：Information Security, Computer Communication Network , Information/Signal Processing, Artificial Intelligence. His titles include: Chief Expert of the Expert Group of Information Security Project of National 863 Program; Expert Committee of National 863 Program Anti-Computer-Invasion and Anti-Virus Technology Research Center (Ministry Public Security) 公安部国家863计划反计算机入侵和防病毒技术研究中心专家委员会成员（公安部）国家863计划信息安全主题专家组首席/管理专家 (科技部)

  Together with Shanghai Jiaotong University, the Lanxiang Vocational School is also one of the five colleges which are known to have associated with the national “information security” research program, including the Great Firewall of China. The other three schools known to have participated are Harbin Institute of Technology, Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, and National University of Defense Technology.

  From information available online, it is not difficult to find connections linking these university research units to the government’s “Information Security” technology research network. For example, from this already deleted list of “Second Term of (National) Internet and Information Security Working Committee (2007),” professor Li Jianhua is listed as a “Member of the Standing Committee”. And the Head of this Committee is none other than Dr. Fang Binxing (方滨兴), a computer scientist, widely known as the the father of the Great Firewall of China. Fang Binxing is the honorary director of the National Computer network Emergency Responses technical Team/Coordination Center of China (CNCERT), a.k.a. the Great Firewall. In Dr. Fang’s public resume, he is the current president of the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, and he taught and conducted research from 1984-1999 at the School of Computer and Electronic Engineering at the Harbin Institute of Technology. Since 2005, he has also been a Specially Hired Professor (“特聘教授”) at the National University of Defense Technology. Among many other titles held by Dr. Fang, he has been the Ministry of Public Security’s Specially Hired Expert on Information Security since 2007; a member of the Informationalization Expert Consulting Committee of the People’s Liberation Army General Logistics Department; and in 2001 he was awarded the title of “Outstanding Individual”, jointly given by the Chinese Communist Party Central Organizational Department, Chinese Communist Party Central Propaganda Department, Chinese Communist Party Political and Legal Committee, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

  What is this mysterious “Lanxiang Vocational School” then? How could a obscure “Vocational School” be listed among China’s top research universities in “information security” research? This school includes a special training program for future PLA technology officers. According to the Lanxiang Vocational School website, translated by CDT, “Deputy Chief of Staff of the Jinan Military District, Major General Zeng Qingzhu came to Shandong Lanxiang to review the national defense education work. In March 2006, the Lanxiang Vocational School established the first military department among the private schools in Shandong, specializing in educating and training high quality technology officerstechnical sergeants for the military. In the last two years, a large number of excellent graduates have enlisted in the PLA and become the important technology backbone of the military.”
  (济南军区副参谋长曾庆祝少将来到山东蓝翔视察国防教育工作。06年3月，蓝翔技校成立山东首家民办学校武装部，专门为部队培养高素质的高级技术士官。两年来，大批优秀学员应征入伍，成为军队的重要技术骨干)

  

  The following photo is currently circulating in Chinese cyberspace. It shows students of the “Lanxiang Vocational School” in 2008 wearing military fatigues.

  Update 2: On Feb. 21, Rong Lanxiang (荣兰祥), the Founder and the Chairman of the Board of the Lanxiang Vocational School made a public statement regarding the report in the New York Times.  According to the Chinese media, Rong said: “The report (by NYT) is merely a fabrication. We do have students joining the PLA, but it is part of the national policy of military recruitment.  Our computing center has more than 2000 computers, but this fact has nothing to do with Baidu. [The NYT report] said we have a military background, this is a joke. (他们纯属瞎编，我们是有学生入 伍，但这符合国家的兵役政策。我们的计算机房有2000多台机器，但这和百度一点关系没有。说我们有军方背景，简直是笑话。)”

  Does Lanxiang really not have any military background?  CDT’s online investigation says just the opposite. In addition to the samples illustrated in this post earlier, here are more examples showing that Lanxiang does have strong connections to the PLA.

  (1) A long profile about Mr. Rong on Lanxiang School’s blog reveals this very background, translated by CDT:

  “In 1988, the PLA started the wave of entrepreneurial operations. Rong Lanxiang decisively grabbed this opportunity, using the platform of the the PLA, created Shandong Lanxiang Vocational School ”

  “1988年，部队掀起搞三产的热潮，荣兰祥果断抓住机遇，利用部队这一平台创建山东蓝翔职业技能培训学校。”

  (2)From Lanxiang School’s blog, summarized by CDT:

  On December 25, 2009, the Lanxiang Vocational School party secretary Li Zixiang reported to a senior visiting PLA officer about the school’s work of training PLA officers over the years.

  (3) From hrbmzj.gov.cn:

  Over the past five years, Lanxiang Vocational School has trained 3000 PLA soldiers, officers, veterans and their families.

  天桥区有一个旨在为退役士兵、优抚对象搭建就业平台的双拥培训基地，这就是山东蓝翔高级技工学校。近5年来，学校对近3000名部队官兵、退伍士兵、军嫂进行免费技能培训，安置转业干部53名、转业军人156名、军嫂25名。

  * The phrase “Information Security” may be very “neutral” sounding. But in recent public policy speeches, Dr. Fang Binxing has emphasized a unique Chinese government concept of “content security“, which includes information surveillance and blocking, and public opinion analysis and monitoring. According to Dr. Fang, China’s top “Information Security” expert, the concept of “content security” is included in the Chinese “Information Security” category. Fang Binxing’s latest research project is none other than “Online Public Opinion Surveillance and Monitoring System.” Professor Li Jianhua’s work also includes “Internet Media Content Ranking Technology for Surveillance and Management” (2001-2002) (网络媒体的内容分级监管技术), “Internet Media Surveillance and Management Information System” (2003) (“网络媒体监管信息系统) and “Content Security Surveillance and Management System and Methods Based on Digital Tags” “基于数字标签的内容安全监控系统及方法” which is already patterned in China.

  ** National 863 Program is the code name of China’s High Technology Development Program 《高技术研究发展计划（863计划）纲要》, which is a state-funded research program on high-technology. According to researcher Greg Walton in this report in 2001: “The 863 Project was initiated in March 1986 as China’s response to the Reagan Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative/”Star Wars.” The 863 concentrates government investment in seven distinct areas, including information technology, which have military and state security applications. Other examples of 863 investments include lasers and anti-satellite systems.”

  Update 3:The New York Times report and other coverage of this story, including this CDT post, has continued to generate debate and discussion. See, for example:
  - The official response to the New York Times story via Xinhua.
  - “The Google/China hacking case: How many news outlets do the original reporting on a big story?” from Nieman Journalism Lab
  - “Lanxiang Vocational’s Mistaken Identity Traced” from Fool’s Mountain

  » Read more
  • February 18, 2010 10:02 PM

• The Tensions that Define China’s Relationship with the West

  

  In the Guardian, Tania Branigan gives a primer on the key issues causing tension in relationships with Western countries, including Taiwan, Tibet, Iran, currency, human rights, and Internet censorship. For example:

  Tension 1 The Dalai Lama
  Meeting of Tibet’s spiritual leader with Obama is a passing irritant

  What’s the problem?
  China’s Foreign Ministry has urged Barack Obama to cancel his meeting with the Dalai Lama, in Washington on Thursday, warning it will damage Sino-US relations.
  View from the west
  Washington and Europe are anxious to highlight the cause of exiled Tibetans and concerns about human rights in the autonomous region, particularly since the unrest of 2008. Every US president for the past 20 years has met the exiled spiritual leader. Obama delayed their meeting because he wanted to visit China first. That led to accusations he was soft-pedalling.
  View from Beijing
  China accuses the Dalai Lama of heading separatist forces – he says he seeks only meaningful autonomy – and has taken a tough line on his meetings with heads of state, particularly since his high-profile 2007 visit to the US. In 2008 it cancelled an EU summit after learning that French president Nicolas Sarkozy was to meet him.

  Meanwhile, an article in the Observer looks at the worries that plague China’s leadership even as they exert growing influence on a number of issues around the globe:

  Analysts predict further tension, rather than a spectacular confrontation, between China and the west. Gao argues that the stakes are too high for both sides. “The decision-makers in this town are cautious, prudent people; not because they are afraid of the other side, but because they know increasing friction is bad for China, bad for the US and bad for the world,” he said.

  Beijing may be increasingly confident, but it does not yet believe its smooth ascendancy is a given. Underneath the veneer of confidence lie persistent anxieties about the true strength of its economy and society, and how to handle issues such as soaring inequality and endemic corruption. Such domestic vulnerabilities enhance the appeal of promoting popular nationalism, yet also reinforce the potential dangers of international disputes.

  » Read more
  • February 13, 2010 9:57 PM

• Google’s Sergey Brin Talking China At TED

  

  At the TED conference in Southern California, Chris Anderson questioned Google founder Sergey Brin about Google’s potential decision to leave China. From a transcript posted on Search Engine Land:

  Anderson:

  Have you know stopped censoring results in China or is it just a statement of intent and your involved in negotiations now.

  Brin:

  Yes, we’ve made a statement of intent. That we intend to stop censoring, and you know, if we can do that, within the confines of Chinese policy, we’d love to continue Google.cn and our operations there. And if we cannot, then we’ll do as much as we can but we don’t want to run a service that’s politically censored. I’m not talking about things like porn and gambling and things like that. Political censorship.

  Anderson:

  You’ve got a mission to the world … there’s hundreds of millions of people in China on the web. I mean, they’re going to feel all completely abandoned, aren’t they, if you leave.

  Brin:

  I’m an optimist. I want to find a way to really work within the Chinese system and provide more and better information. I think a lot of people think I’m naive, and that may well be true, but I wouldn’t have started a search engine in 1998 if I wasn’t naive.

  » Read more
  • February 12, 2010 10:03 PM

• Marc Ambinder: How The Hackers Took Google: A Theory

  

  From the Atlantic Magazine:

  Fred Chang has a theory about how hackers affiliated with the Chinese government hacked into Google and at least two dozen other major American companies. Chang is a professor of computer science at the University of Texas — so we should listen to him. But he is also the former director of research for the National Security Agency, so he has a pretty good idea of what hackers can do — and whether these things can be picked up by the government or industry.

  Chang says he has no inside or special knowledge, but here is his theory: the hack was much more of a sophisticated intelligence operation than many believed. The first step was espionage and data collection.

  The second step was the hack itself. Chang believes that the Chinese hackers figured out the identities of the system administrators for various computer networks. Then, the hackers figured out, using publicly availably Facebook data, the social networks that these systems administrators were part of.

  » Read more
  • February 8, 2010 5:56 PM

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