"Internet freedom" and "smart power" diplomacy
16:01, January 25, 2010
If the double effect is to accomplish access to both moral high ground and pragmatism, then it could be perhaps an easy choice to take the so-called "freedom" to do empty rhetoric.
The United States has lambasted "China's policies to administer the Internet". Of late, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton criticized China's policies on Internet administration and insinuated that China restricts Internet freedom, claiming the unrestricted internet access as "a key diplomatic priority".
In her speech in Washington D.C., Hillary Clinton mentioned China four times and referred to it as among a number of countries where there has been a "spike in threats to the free flow of information." Moreover, she said, Chinese "authorities cut off public Web access entirely to Western region, portion of which they have only recently begun restored."
Hillary Clinton's "network freedom" propaganda or allegation can be said to have the originality: As she advocates for "network freedom", who would dare to oppose it openly? Or whoever will put himself at the opposite of freedom?
This is why she came up with her idea of "smart power" when coming to power early last year. Standing on the high moral ground to peddle "network freedom", it could not only make other countries not disgusting with its interference with their countries, but subjects those being criticized to the low moral ground and appear unreasonable themselves even with reasons.
If the moral high ground is short of real, practical support, however, it can hardly walk on and stand with a foothold eventually. Take for the attack on Google, the United States urged China to make a thorough-going probe but the U.S. should first look into attack problems itself. Not long ago, the largest Chinese search engine Baidu was attacked and the domain name registration service provider was right in the U.S. territory.
Then, let us look at "network freedom" in the U.S.: In order to resist Internet pornography, the U.S. "Children's Internet Protection Act"American authorities have enacted requires all public network resources to curb internet child porn, a serious crime in the country; in order to respond to threats, Pentagon has developed a new type of troops – cyber troops, and also adopted several measures to beef up the military's cyber warfare capacity; shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Congress approved the Patriot Act to grant its security agencies the right to search telephone and e-mail communications in the name of anti-terrorism…
It is thus evident that with any freedom, people are not meant to do whatever they want, but they still need the norms of law and order, which constitute the basic premise of "network freedom". On the one hand, you take the rigid control of your cyber and, on the other hand, you ask other countries to establish the network of a free utopia type. So, this cannot but be called the continued application of double standards.
The reality also shows that "network freedom", which has been brought to sell or peddle everywhere, is merely a diplomatic means, an illusion of freedom only.
In the present Internet era, international politics have extended from the geographical space and outer space to the cyberspace, and national sovereignty extended from the territorial space and airspace to the "information frontiers". As the birth place of the Internet and network application, the United States has resorted to the "internet diplomacy" and found it to be the most favorable and useful battleground.
For example, Admiral Gary Roughead, commander of the U.S. navy, has taken the cyber world for a "battlefield"; Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued an order to establish a new military cyber command dedicated to coordinating the Pentagon's efforts to defend its networks and conduct cyber warfare. The command was expected to be fully operational by October this year. Meanwhile, the US defemse secretaru has cited Twitter and other social media networks in the U.S. as the "extremely important strategic assets". The United States in 2002 set up a hackers' web force, the first of its kind in world history and its Defense Department released a "four-year mandate of the mission evaluation report, which classifies the cyber warfare as the "core capability" of the U.S.
If the United States really wants to promote the "cyber freedom", to make the unlimited internet" a "national trademark", and to let people see the internet only "high seas" not "territorial waters", why should it all along grasp firmly the server terminal in its own hands, and then how to explain the high-profile Microsoft announced the closure of Cuba, Iran, Syria, Sudan the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)? Furthermore, as part of an effort to coordinating protests and demonstrations of Iran's opposition forces, noted media reports, U.S. officials have even suggested delaying the update of Twitter server.
Consequently, it can be seen that for the United States, whether be it the "hard power", "soft power" or "smart power", or whether be it the "big sticks of human rights", "democracy exportation" or "cyber freedom", there has always been "the U.S. self-interest behind all these frequently changed or shifted means or tactics.
By People's Daily Online and contributed by ace PD reporter He Zhenhua
Internet knows no borders, but needs regulation
Internet knows no borders, but needs regulation
11:20, January 25, 2010
Setting up a false dichotomy between Internet freedom and supervision is wrong
I. As is widely recognized, freedom is always relative, and such is also the case with Internet freedom.It is common practice for countries, including the United States, to take necessary measures to administer the Internet according to their own laws and regulations. Full story
II. "Google has broken Chinese laws by providing links to pornographic sites and infringing intellectual property rights." "Google must understand and respect China's Internet supervision policy, even if it does not agree with it." Full story
III. China has its own domestic situation and cultural tradition, and it accords with the world's common practice that China administers the Internet according to its laws and policies.Full story
On Internet regulation
I. China's regulation on the Internet industry is in line with the laws and should be free from unjustifiable interferences, a Chinese government official said in Beijing Sunday. China's regulation on the Internet industry is proved to be suitable for China's national conditions and in line with common practices in most countries as well...Full story
II. Google is still blocking certain content in other countries at the demand of their governments.
In India, Google has also removed content from the Indian version of its social networking site, Orkut, that was deemed by the government to be politically incendiary, Forbes said.
In France and Germany, Google blocks search results for extremist groups such as the neo-Nazi group Stormfront and the Holocaust denial association AAARGH, the article said.Full story
On cyber attacks
I. Last year, 262,000 IP addresses in China were hit by trojans planted by nearly 165,000 overseas IP addresses. "Those from the US ranked first, accounting for 16.61 percent," Zhou said. Full story
II. Official data showed more than one million IP addresses were under control by overseas sources and the number of Web sites tampered by hackers exceeded 42,000 last year.The widespread Conficker worm virus infected 18 million computers per month in 2009, the most in the world, or 30 percent of the global total infected.Full story
III. 178 government websites in China attacked in a week
A total of 178 government websites in China were attacked from January 4 to January 10, up 409 percent than last week. Full story
IV. A senior Chinese information official said China firmly opposed cyber attacks and called on all countries to work together to ensure Internet security. Full story
Comment: Internet - New shot in the arm for US hegemony
Over the past 40 years, the US has been dominating the world Internet as the core technique holder with an inherent advantage of being the cradle of the Internet. There are 13 terminal servers in the world to keep the Internet running, with a master server and nine of the 12 secondary servers stationed in the US. Full story
U.S. Cyber diplomacy
I. "Cyber diplomacy" becomes more aggressive
US cyber diplomacy originally emphasized the integration of internal sources using information technology in order to serve US foreign policy more effectively. Since the beginning of this century, the US Department of State has focused on strengthening its communication and information sharing capacity, and launched a cyber diplomacy agency in 2002. Full story
II. "Cyber diplomacy" broadens US concept of diplomacy
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said at a graduation ceremony at New York University recently that the US should use all useable media tools to establish a new bottom-top relationship. She said that this is the essence of smart power, adding that this change requires the US to broaden its concept of diplomacy. Full story
III. Constructing a cyber security system
While making full use of cyber diplomacy, the US military authority also spare no efforts in securing a "commanding post" in the cyber-battle. This has been marked by the creation of a cyber command centre on June 23, 2009. Full story
I. As is widely recognized, freedom is always relative, and such is also the case with Internet freedom.It is common practice for countries, including the United States, to take necessary measures to administer the Internet according to their own laws and regulations. Full story
II. "Google has broken Chinese laws by providing links to pornographic sites and infringing intellectual property rights." "Google must understand and respect China's Internet supervision policy, even if it does not agree with it." Full story
III. China has its own domestic situation and cultural tradition, and it accords with the world's common practice that China administers the Internet according to its laws and policies.Full story
On Internet regulation
I. China's regulation on the Internet industry is in line with the laws and should be free from unjustifiable interferences, a Chinese government official said in Beijing Sunday. China's regulation on the Internet industry is proved to be suitable for China's national conditions and in line with common practices in most countries as well...Full story
II. Google is still blocking certain content in other countries at the demand of their governments.
In India, Google has also removed content from the Indian version of its social networking site, Orkut, that was deemed by the government to be politically incendiary, Forbes said.
In France and Germany, Google blocks search results for extremist groups such as the neo-Nazi group Stormfront and the Holocaust denial association AAARGH, the article said.Full story
On cyber attacks
I. Last year, 262,000 IP addresses in China were hit by trojans planted by nearly 165,000 overseas IP addresses. "Those from the US ranked first, accounting for 16.61 percent," Zhou said. Full story
II. Official data showed more than one million IP addresses were under control by overseas sources and the number of Web sites tampered by hackers exceeded 42,000 last year.The widespread Conficker worm virus infected 18 million computers per month in 2009, the most in the world, or 30 percent of the global total infected.Full story
III. 178 government websites in China attacked in a week
A total of 178 government websites in China were attacked from January 4 to January 10, up 409 percent than last week. Full story
IV. A senior Chinese information official said China firmly opposed cyber attacks and called on all countries to work together to ensure Internet security. Full story
Comment: Internet - New shot in the arm for US hegemony
Over the past 40 years, the US has been dominating the world Internet as the core technique holder with an inherent advantage of being the cradle of the Internet. There are 13 terminal servers in the world to keep the Internet running, with a master server and nine of the 12 secondary servers stationed in the US. Full story
U.S. Cyber diplomacy
I. "Cyber diplomacy" becomes more aggressive
US cyber diplomacy originally emphasized the integration of internal sources using information technology in order to serve US foreign policy more effectively. Since the beginning of this century, the US Department of State has focused on strengthening its communication and information sharing capacity, and launched a cyber diplomacy agency in 2002. Full story
II. "Cyber diplomacy" broadens US concept of diplomacy
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said at a graduation ceremony at New York University recently that the US should use all useable media tools to establish a new bottom-top relationship. She said that this is the essence of smart power, adding that this change requires the US to broaden its concept of diplomacy. Full story
III. Constructing a cyber security system
While making full use of cyber diplomacy, the US military authority also spare no efforts in securing a "commanding post" in the cyber-battle. This has been marked by the creation of a cyber command centre on June 23, 2009. Full story
No comments:
Post a Comment