Chinese state media stepped up their war of words with the United States over internet control on Tuesday, with a top newspaper claiming a US conspiracy and saying China can live without Google.
Two weeks ago the world’s biggest search engine provider, Google, threatened to shut its Chinese Google.cn portal and to pull back from China, citing problems of censorship and sophisticated hacking from within the country.
The Obama administration has backed Google’s criticisms, and on Thursday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China to drop internet censorship and investigate the claims of hacking, which some experts have said could have been organised by Beijing.
After first fending off the criticisms from Google and Washington with tight-lipped restraint, Chinese officials and state-run media have launched a torrent of scorn that has the hallmarks of a concerted counter-campaign.
The country’s top newspaper warned that the internet row was hurting broader bilateral relations — which have also been strained by trade disputes, US arms sales to Taiwan, and the possibility that President Barack Obama will meet the Dalai Lama, who Beijing calls a separatist.
“These statements and actions disregard reality and harm China’s national image, upsetting the healthy and stable development of Sino-US ties,” the People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s chief mouthpiece, said in a commentary on the internet dispute.
“It is not difficult to see the shadow of the US government behind the politicisation of the Google affair.”
Washington had exploited Google’s claims “in an effort to restrict China’s right to protect its national security and interests on the internet”.
Google has said it wants talks with the Chinese government about solving its complaints.
But the People’s Daily added a note of uncertainty about Google’s hopes. “Perhaps Google has already realised that China can do without Google, but without China, Google does not have a future,” it said.
Orchestrated counterattack
The outpouring of criticism, echoed in other prominent Chinese newspapers, suggests Clinton’s speech riled Beijing’s wary leaders, who have long said the West is bent on undermining Communist Party power.
China’s propaganda authorities regularly unleash the domestic press, which all comes under state control, to defend policies at tense times, especially when Beijing comes under pressure from abroad.
“The media criticism is certainly orchestrated to send a message from the Chinese government, but it’s also trying to shift the target from Google to the US government,” said Li Datong, a former senior editor with the China Youth Daily who was shunted aside after complaining of censorship.
“That doesn’t mean there’s no room for compromise, but in public the Chinese government never likes being seen as going soft,” Li told Reuters.
China defends its internet controls as necessary to protect minors, though many other sensitive issues are also prevented from appearing, such as references to 1989’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations around Tiananmen Square.
China has blocked sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube following ethnic riots in restive Xinjiang and Tibet.
Beijing has denied the hacking accusations, saying instead that it is a major victim of hackers. – Reuters