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January 23, 2010
Editorial
A Good Fight
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/2 ... ml?scp=6&sq=&st=nyt
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton picked the right battle thisweek, calling for an end to Internet censorship and naming governmentsthat suppress the free flow of information — including China, Iran,Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Tunisia and Uzbekistan.
Her speech, at the Newseum in Washington, had pointed echoes of thecold war, including a warning that “a new information curtain isdescending across much of the world.” Anyone who finds that overheatedshould remember how hard Iran’s government worked to shut down the Webduring last summer’s bloody, pro-democracy protests — and the power ofthe images and words that managed to get through.
Mrs. Clinton also placed the Obama administration squarely on the sideof Google in its fight with China over Internet censorship andcyberattacks. She called on the Chinese government to conduct athorough and transparent review of Google’s accusations that Gmailaccounts used by Chinese human rights activists had been hacked intofrom the mainland. And she called on other American companies tochallenge “foreign governments’ demands for censorship andsurveillance.”
It will take more than just a tough speech to change China’s policies,and more than a tough speech to change the policies of far too manycompanies that enable Beijing and other repressive governments whenthey accept censorship as a normal price of doing business.
But there is no doubt that Chinese authorities — which had hoped toplay down the fight with Google — are listening and getting nervous.
On Friday, the day after the speech, a spokesman for China’s ForeignMinistry called on the United States “to stop using the so-calledInternet freedom question to level baseless accusations.” The spokesmanalso insisted that “the Chinese Internet is open.” The Chinese peopleknow better. So should China’s government. |
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发表于 2010-1-25 12:54
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