China’s Internet Woes & the Cabletastrophy

Image courtesy of J.Anderson & The Tech Herald

James Glanz & John Markoff’s recent New York Times article on China’s discomfort with the internet is another in the recent string of articles discussing the WikiLeaks scandal and foreign policy.  I have to admit, on reading their article I found myself more than a little tickled at some of the issues brought up.  In light of the scandals, one could certainly argue that the government of China has been rather reasonable in fearing the dangers presented by the internet.  Given my appreciation of democracy as the preferred method of governance, of course I think China would be well served to loosen up, but in my own country the government’s reaction to the diplomatic cabletastrophy has been anything but forgiving.

I’m sure that there will be lots of news in the next few days regarding the accusation of Chinese “cyber attacks” on Google, but the issue I find interesting is one that seemed largely a side note.  On reading the article I was struck by the continued “misunderstanding” regarding China’s interpretation of the relationship between private organizations and the governments they exist in.  Earlier this year drama arose between the governments of China and Norway, over the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.  Along similar lines, in the recent diplomatic cable leak there are claims that Chinese officials put pressure on the United States government to censor Google Earth.

Warnings that the US would be responsible if terrorists used the information presented through Google to attack China, strike me as similar to the issues between China and Norway.  These incidents speak to a strange broader problem in China’s government either honestly or rhetorically failing to understand the separation between government and private institutions. In some ways I suspect WikiLeaks has a great deal more to fear from antagonizing the government of China, even collaterally, than it does the government of the United States.