Asia Times Online: Dissonance grows in US-China network

22 November 2011 - Asia Times Online - By Benjamin A. Shobert

For Americans, few technologies so embody the freedoms we enjoy more than that of the Internet. A Wild West where anyone with an opinion and the most basic know-how can find a podium from which to pronounce their beliefs, the Internet in many ways not only symbolizes the proud American value of dissent, but equally captures some of the most profound differences between the United States and China.

Where in America, the Internet facilitates an existing political belief - the need for the individual to have an opinion, to vocalize it, and to have to right to do so - in China, the Internet draws a sharp focus on the limitations to how Chinese may express themselves and disagree with their government.

For Chinese, the technologies which make the modern Internet possible are equal parts blessing and curse; holding the promiseof freedom of expression but equally the curse of a central government empowered by technology to look into the most personal expressions of what Chinese think, feel and believe.

Laid on top of these matters is the additional problem that the Internet remains, both the hardware which makes its existence possible in the first place, as well as the software which makes its use engrossing and empowering, one of the most compelling business opportunities in China.

For American Internet companies, the need to get their products into the growing domestic Chinese market is of utmost importance.

However, the price of entry for many of these companies is to agree to terms with the Chinese government that fundamentally restrict the full empowering potential of their technology while also giving Beijing the ability to snoop into the online habits and thoughts of the Chinese people.

Can these companies simply turn their backs on the Chinese market because the agreeing to these terms would be a violation of their founding values? Or, should they agree to Beijing's terms with the belief that no government can forever walk the fine line between agreeing to the Internet's ability to connect disparate voices on commercial matters without at some point empowering these same people to ask for more from their government?

To many Internet companies who believe their technologies empower the individual, this trade would be worthwhile; however, others see China's ability to thus far use technology as a means of perpetuating its heavy-handed rule and believe they have no place helping Beijing's authoritarians continue its censorship policies.

On Thursday, the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) turned its attention to what it called the ''human toll and trade impact'' of China's Internet and media censorship policies. The CECC's hearing represents an attempt by congress to point out that China's censorship practices not only represent an unacceptable value American policy makers cannot support, but that these same practices represent a challenge to the free trade policies the United States and China have agreed to.

It is an interesting commentary on the state of US-China relations that the US Congress feels its best chance to highlight the practices of China's authoritarian government is to link these habits with a loss of economic opportunities for American business.

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