Comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ma Zhaoxu hint at increasing American-Chinese acrimony.
While the countries have disagreed publicly about issues like climate change and Taiwanese democracy, the internet freedom-of-information issue is one that has remained largely unaddressed until recently.
China’s web censorship policies came into sharp relief last week after internet giant Google threatened to withdraw from the country. Google and other firms were attacked by Chinese hackers, the Mountain View, California company said; in response, it refused to submit any longer to China’s restrictions on web content.
Secretary Clinton, speaking at the Newseum in Washington on Thursday, only hinted at China’s censorship, mentioning it in the same breath as Tunisia, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. But her language left little doubt about the official U.S. position on internet censoring.
“We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas,” she stated.
Foreign Affairs ministry spokesman Ma said that the government urged the U.S. “to stop using the so-called internet freedom issue to make groundless charges against China.”
Google and Chinese officials are engaging in talks, Google CEO Eric Schmidt indicated this week.
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