Internet knows no borders, but

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.

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."

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

IV. In one word, the Internet is both free and regulated. The question of Internet freedom in any country is connected with local customs and cultural traditions, and should not be politicized.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

IV. A senior Chinese information official said China firmly opposed cyber attacks and called on all countries to work together to ensure Internet security.

Comment: To defend "freedom", or to defend "hegemony"?

For two weeks or so, U.S. media have gone all out to "promote" the "Google issue" and American politicians repeated great "noises" in accusation of China's internet management policies and insinuate the nation's restriction on "internet freedom".

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.

Comment: "Internet freedom" and "smart power" diplomacy

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.

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.

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.

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.