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【原文标题】China at Odds With Future in Internet Fight
【原文链接】http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/world/asia/17china.html
【译文链接】http://news.backchina.com/2010/1/18/gb2312_73030.html
纽约时报就谷歌可能退出中国采访国内的谷歌用户
清华大学的一些学生星期五在开玩笑，说他们最好现在把所有他们想要的信息下载，以防谷歌离开中国。
但对许多谷歌的忠实用户-年轻，受过良好教育的人，谷歌声称退出中国可不是一件好笑的事。在北京市区和大学区进行的采访表明，不少人认为，失去谷歌的地图，翻译服务，sketching 软件，获取学术论文的网站，及搜索功能会带来真正的麻烦。“没有谷歌我怎么生活呀？”一名29岁的经商人士王源源在离开北京商务区的便利店时说。
中国政府一直在试图平衡他们对互联网蓬勃发展的愿望，促进经济增长的努力，与实施政治控制的要求。谷歌退出中国的可能性在北京的年轻，受过良好教育，更通晓网络的市民，中国未来的精英中引起的不安，显示维持这种平衡是如何的不容易。
通过公开挑战中国的审查制度，谷歌已经激起了对政府所宣称的对言论自由的限制对于政治稳定及繁荣是至关重要的辩论。即使这不会对党构成任何直接威胁，但中国分析家们认为,谷歌的举动很清楚地造成政府的被动。
“中国网民的平均年龄还很年轻。这是一个有关未来的问题，政府的互联网政策是否要与未来斗争。”北京大学新闻学教授胡庸说。“如果这个过程继续下去，越来越多的人会开始认识到他们的信息自由受到侵犯，这可能在将来产生变化。”
谷歌相对百度搜索引擎虽是排在第二，但其估计拥有的8千万用户受过更好的教育并相对富裕。调查显示，大约三分之二具有大学学历。 一位北京的技术顾问Kaiser Kuo描述他们是“一个潜在的有噪音的选民群。”
一位担心报复而不愿透露姓名的互联网专家说：“他们接受了这种局面，发财致富，有一个好工作，过好日子，别给党找麻烦。”但如果谷歌离开，他接着说，“他们可能会开始寻思，‘我的国家怎么了，为什么不让我这样做？’”“这不是说他们会走上街头。”他补充说。“但是，这进一步削弱了党的合法性。这是一群党不希望比已经丧失的还要更多丧失的人。”
另一方面，在去年7月的动乱后，政府切断了有1千9百万人的整个新疆地区的几乎所有的互联网联系达半年之久而没有遇到任何重大的政治阻力，现在才小心翼翼地解除限制。
其他互联网用户认为，谷歌要想在中国做生意，它必须尊重中国政府的政策。“我认为政府的这种控制相当合理，” 29岁的清华大学机械工程研究生刘强说。“我们的党需要稳定其治理。”
一些人预测，谷歌的退出造成的任何不便将是短暂的。“互联网很大，”在北京金融区工作的27岁的Wang Quiya说。“有人会填补空缺，对不对？”
政府最近加强互联网管制的做法影响到一些网民的娱乐。为了清除色情和盗版，当局自去年11月关闭了数百个提供电影和音乐下载，视频游戏及其他娱乐形式的网站。清华大学高年级学生黎安说，她过去使用由中国电信经营的网站下载“Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy”，现在网站已关闭。“我喜欢美国的电视连续剧。”她无奈地说。谷歌的损失将会带来更大打击，因为她依赖Google Scholar为她的高分子科学课下载学术文章。“对我来说，这太可怕了。”
有些学生争辩说，即使谷歌撤出后，互联网上的空间将继续缩小。一位20岁的清华大学计算机科学专业学生说，到目前为止，谷歌处在与审查斗争的前线，而为百度提供了保护。“如果没有谷歌，百度将非常容易被操纵。”他说。“我不希望看到这一趋势。”
一名21岁的土木工程系学生预测会有对政府的强烈反应。 “如果谷歌真的离开，人们会觉得政府已经走得太远了。”他在大学的咖啡馆吃午餐时表示。但当被问及这种反应是否会影响政府使其软化政策时，他嚼着他的薯条说，“我真的不知道。”
January 17, 2010
China at Odds With Future in Internet Fight
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
BEIJING — At the elite Tsinghua University here, some students were joking Friday that they had better download all the Internet information they wanted now in case Google left the country.
But to many of the young, well-educated Chinese who are Google’s loyal users here, the company’s threat to leave is in fact no laughing matter. Interviews in Beijing’s downtown and university district indicated that many viewed the possible loss of Google’s maps, translation service, sketching software, access to scholarly papers and search function with real distress.
“How am I going to live without Google?” asked Wang Yuanyuan, a 29-year-old businessman, as he left a convenience store in Beijing’s business district.
China’s Communist leaders have long tried to balance their desire for a thriving Internet and the economic growth it promotes with their demands for political control. The alarm over Google among Beijing’s younger, better-educated and more Internet savvy citizens — China’s future elite — shows how wobbly that balancing act can be.
By publicly challenging China’s censorship, Google has stirred up the debate over the government’s claim that constraints on free speech are crucial to political stability and the prosperity that has accompanied it. Even if it is unlikely to pose any immediate threat to the Communist Party, Google’s move has clearly discomfited the government, Chinese analysts say.
“The average age of Chinese netizens is still very young,” said Hu Yong, a journalism professor at Peking University. “This is a matter of the future and whether the government’s Internet policy wants to fight with the future.
“If this process goes on, more and more people are going to realize that their freedom of information is being infringed upon, and this could bring changes down the line.”
Google may rank a distant second to the Baidu search engine, but its estimated 80 million users are comparatively better educated and wealthier. Surveys show that roughly two-thirds are college educated. A Beijing technology consultant, Kaiser Kuo, describes them as “a potentially very noisy constituency.”
An Internet expert who insisted on anonymity for fear of repercussions from the government said: “They have bought into the bargain of get rich, have a good job, life gets better, just don’t mess with the Communist Party.”
If Google leaves, he said, “they may start asking, ‘What’s wrong with my country that it doesn’t let me do this?’ ”
“It is not like they are going to take to the streets,” he added. “But it further erodes the legitimacy of what the Communist Party is doing. This is a group the party doesn’t want to lose any more than it already has.”
On the other hand, the Chinese government managed to cut off nearly all Internet access to an entire region of 19 million people for half a year without encountering any significant political resistance. The blackout, imposed in the western Xinjiang region after deadly riots in July, is only now being gingerly lifted.
Other Internet users argue that Google must respect the Chinese government’s policies if it wants to do business here.
“I think government control of this is quite reasonable,” said Liu Qiang, 29, a Tsinghua University mechanical engineer graduate student. “Our party needs to stabilize its governance.”
Some predict that any inconvenience caused by Google’s exit will be short-lived. “The Internet is really big,” said Wang Quiya, a 27-year-old worker in Beijing’s financial district. “Something will take its place, right?”
The government’s recent efforts to tighten Internet controls have already cost some Chinese some pleasures. In the name of rooting out pornography and piracy, Chinese authorities have shut down hundreds of Web sites offering films, music downloads, video games and other forms of entertainment since November.
Li An, a Tsinghua University senior, said she used to download episodes of “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” from sites run by BT China that are now closed. “I love American television series,” she said with frustration during a pause from studying Japanese at a university fast-food restaurant on Friday.
The loss of Google would hit her much harder, she said, because she relies on Google Scholar to download academic papers for her classes in polymer science. “For me, this is terrible,” Ms. Li said.
Some students contend that even after Google pulls out, Internet space will continue to shrink. Until now, Google has shielded Baidu by manning the front line in the censorship battle, said a 20-year-old computer science major at Tsinghua.
“Without Google, Baidu will be very easy to manipulate,” he said. “I don’t want to see this trend.”
A 21-year old civil engineering student predicted a strong reaction against the government. “If Google really leaves, people will feel the government has gone too far,” he insisted over lunch in the university cafe.
But asked whether that reaction would influence the government to soften its policies, he concentrated on his French fries. “I really don’t know,” he said.
Xiyun Yang, Li Bibo and Nancy Zhao contributed research. |
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