Tensions Flare between Google and China

Source: google.cn

Tensions at at an all-time high between the democratic internet republic of Google and the communist red china, causing Google to alter its policy on censorship of its China search engine, google.cn, search results. Let us take a closer look at why this is so.

Google has accused China of gross misuse and abuse of the Internet. One prime example, Google's spokesman's claims, is that there has been "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack" on Google and over 20 other major business companies worldwide. Sources pinpoint the hackers' motives as stealing the former's software code. "A primary goal of the attackers," as quoted from Google, was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. 

Even more shockingly, this is not surprising. Why should it be? After all, Chinese hackers launch cyber-attacks on businesses, and even government agencies routinely, almost on a daily basis. China has also demanded that Western governments aid them in snooping and prying on alleged human rights activists' email accounts and in their efforts to censor discriminating political online content. In this way, China is making human rights a nothing more than a farce, using the supposedly freedom of speech and opinions native to the Internet as cold, hard evidence to prosecute democrats.  Though Western countries have simply gone along with these policies in the past, Google has taken a bold step forward by it refusal to comply with Beijing's conditions, a refusal that marks the beginning of the fight for Internet freedom of speech.

Reflection:
I disapprove of China's heavy political censorship of the Internet. I believe that people should be allowed to know what they want to know, what they want to think, not what the government wants them to know and wants them to think. Hence, I support Google all the way for daring to be the first to oppose China. 

Furthermore, I find China's methods to restrict online political content and to keep tabs on human rights activists far too extreme and uncalled for. After all, haven't they heard of privacy? As human beings, we should be entitled to our individual privacy, something nothing should take away from us.  

Google Vs China - Clash of the Titans

 Source: Google

Nearly 2 weeks has past since the recent showdown between Google and China over Beijing's censorship rules.  The massive argument resulted from strict censoring of the Internet in china, censoring that returned thousands of blocked websites for certain "taboo" search terms in China, such as "dalai lama" or "Tiananmen Square". As such, China's censorship policy is directly contradictory to Google's motto of providing free and unrestricted information to anybody and everybody in the world. Hence, the discontentment of Google. 

Furthermore, China is infamous for pioneering the development of sophisticated cyberspying and cyberattacking/hacking apparatus. This is  justified by the steep rise in hacking originating from China of not only human-rights organizations, but more importantly and shockingly, foreign businesses and governments as well. As such, China is considered as dangerous as they own the latest hacking tools that most countries are not even aware of yet. Because of this, the moderate tension between the two civilizations, China and Google, has spiked into a full-fledged fight.

Due to the difference in view of the dissemination of information online and contradictory practises between the two titans , Google and China are at loggerheads with each other, with Google debating whether or not to pull out of the China market since China refuses to compromise. Who will win the Internet war? Google or China? Only time will tell… (watch out for my next post)

Reflections:

I feel that the main issue of the article is whether or not Google will decide to pull out of the China market due to the difference in opinions on how they should operate. Related secondary issues would be China's sneaky, behind-the-scenes tactics and how it is fast emerging as one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. Also, I can infer that the writer of the article in Newsweek favors Google slightly over China as the former is depicted as the innocent party while China is portrayed in a bad light. However, I would take the point of view of the writer as I have sourced for and read many articles on the World Wide Web concerning this incident and found that most of them take the stand of the writer. I believe this is because they feel China should be more transparent about their methods to keep track of organizations and individuals alike and also more democratic and not ban certain website from being accessed, just because they are contradictory to China's view. 

Furthermore, I feel that modern China strikes a far cry from the once rural, isolated nation.  There was once, a few decades back, when China depended heavily on business from Western capitalist countries the USA. However, over the years, China's own internal market has expanded tremendously; its exports to non-Western countries significant and capital vault vast. No longer is it the agricultural, backward nation it once was. In fact, China's urban, public sector generates more revenue than the rural, private sector. It is on par with the US. However, because of the great leap forward for China, China is less willing to accommodate itself to Western ideas, companies and governments. In a sense, China feels it is one of the world's major powers and wants to be treated as such, becoming cocky and focusing more on internal dynamics, less focused outwards as it climbs the economic ladder. Once a upon a time, it would not have dared to oppose such a massive company like Google as it relied heavily on foreign business. Now, it faces straight up to Google and dares to push for their own ideals.