AfterDawn: News

China rejects U.S. criticism on Internet control

The Chinese government has denounced criticism directed at it in a speech about Internet freedom given by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday. In the speech, Clinton has named China as a country that restricts Internet freedom, among several others. In her speech, Clinton also called for the Chinese government to investigate allegations made by Google that a China-originated attack on its systems targeted Chinese human rights activists, and to publish the results of the investigation.

"The US has criticized China's policies to administer the Internet, and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement on the foreign ministry website. "This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations." When Google itself launched in China in 2006, it agreed to censor some search results, which included those related to the 1989 Tienanmen Square protests and Tibet.



Clinton acknowledged in her speech that the Internet was a "source of tremendous progress" in China, but warned that any country imposing political or commercial restrictions on the free access of information risked "walling themselves off from the progress of the next century." She called for tough action to be taken against people and states that engage in cyber attacks.

Clinton also singled out Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan as states that have suffered a spike in censorship and political control over the Internet in recent times.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 22 Jan 2010 17:59

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• 7 comments

• themind

  The US is censored also so why would Clinton put energy into un censoring China? hhhhmmmmmmmmmm.....

  22.1.2010 19:47 #1

• Azuran

  What about Austrailia?

  22.1.2010 19:54 #2

• KillerBug

  Most countries have censored internet...but china does it to an incredible level...going so far as to block out web addresses associated with humanitarian groups.
  
  Also, the big thing that sparked all of this is the fact that hackers working for the Chinese government launched an illigal (even by chinese law) attack on the google servers, and the Chinese government will not even do a mock investigation and deliver a scapegoat...
  
  Instead, they started responding about how their internet isn't censored, a reply that had nothing to do with the question that started all of this. Of course, this was a bit like going up to a police officer and saying, "I didn't kill my wife"...so now it has become about more than just a crime by the government against a company...now it is about many crimes by the government against their own people.

  22.1.2010 23:13 #3

• nonoitall

  Quote:Clinton acknowledged in her speech that the Internet was a "source of tremendous progress" in China, but warned that any country imposing political or commercial restrictions on the free access of information risked "walling themselves off from the progress of the next century."I think Hillary needs to take a look at what the entertainment industry is doing in her own country.

  23.1.2010 01:53 #4

• xboxdvl2

  2 things i'd like to point out.1st usa criticises every other country. 2nd china use to be a communist country and the government feels like they need some control over the people.
  

  married to my car and computer.both of them have problems.

  16.5.2011 04:01 #5

• Laura999

  Originally posted by dordurden: I just read this news at this thread. I feel sad to read this. Why we stop others to do such things but we personally dont omit these things. I agree with you, why the US government do this?
  

  16.5.2011 04:53 #6

• ddp

  spammer spammed.
  

  16.5.2011 22:59 #7