China's 'Green Dam' reversal a sign of maturity

China's decision to delay its "Green Dam" software requirement indicates its ability to listen and respond to criticism, writes 'The China Post'

The China Post
Monday, July 6, 2009

At the start of their reigns, most totalitarian regimes don't care what the world thinks. Cuba, China and Vietnam forswore most contacts with the outside world for decades.

The U.N. could scream and fuss as much as it wanted, but these states simply continued with their oppressive policies.

Today however, North Korea might be one of a handful of nations left in the world that is reasonably impervious to world opinion.

With the advent of the Internet and globalization, fully totalitarian and semi-autocratic nations alike are finding out how difficult it is to stop information from getting in and getting out.

The one nation that has tried to control the Internet harder than any other is China, and from its perspective, it's been a job well done.

"The Great Firewall of China," as some have termed it, is a mega-filter that blocks access to pornography and sensitive political information and Web sites.

While in China, google "Tiananmen" and the search results will provide just generic pages about the square itself. Conspicuously missing is information about the 1989 Tiananmen protests and the subsequent crackdown by Chinese troops.

Broadcasts are also subject to controls. The 24-hour news channel CNN is available in upscale Chinese hotels and at some other selected places, but the second the coverage switches to something China finds objectionable, the television goes black.

Most, if not all, Chinese Internet cafes have closed-circuit cameras that spy on patrons. The crown of the Chinese surveillance empire, however, is its Golden Shield Project, which went into full effect in 2003.

The Golden Shield's mission is to control both cyberspace and the streets of Chinese cities. The US$800 million program includes advanced face-recognition software and strong Internet firewalls and is capable of "poisoning" links to sites so that they become inaccessible.

But, evidently, China does not think these controls are adequate. The latest attempt by China to restrict the free-flow of the Web has been christened the "Green Dam-Youth Escort." This time, instead of monitoring from the outside, China is taking control from inside the guts of computers. China had originally ordered all computer manufacturers based in China -- and that includes most if not all major manufacturers -- to install filtering software in their models before sale.

Some computer manufacturers, including Taiwan's ACER and Japan's Sony, generally agreed to the restrictions as they argued that they really didn't have much choice.

Other manufacturers were less cooperative. Last Friday, a group of U.S. PC makers, including Dell and Hewlett-Packard, sent a letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, asking him to scrap the requirement.

Some in the industry took a different tack and pointed to security flaws in the system that could be exploited.

Last week came word that China has reversed its decision and delayed or cancelled the launch of the "Green Dam." It could simply be a delay, but it is possible China might have re-assessed the program and decided it was more trouble than its worth.

When news of the "Green Dam" first spread around the world (ironically through the same Internet the program seeks to control) the reaction was overwhelmingly negative. For many, the launch of more Chinese restrictions on the Internet was a straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.

Some actions from China recently indicate that the nation is beginning to "grow up." One of the clear signs of maturity is when children begin caring about what other people think of them. A very small child just doesn't care about the opinions of others. Nations exhibit similar behavior.

Twenty-plus years ago, China wouldn't have cared if the entire world condemned it, but as that nation matures, its world image is becoming a bigger factor in its decision- making.

A couple of other indicators are the relative silence over Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu's use of "President Ma" in her remarks while visiting the mainland, as well as China's positive reaction to President Ma's call for a diplomatic truce.

A coup in Honduras gave China a great opening to try to snatch away this ally of Taiwan, but so far the Chinese are sticking to the truce.

China just might be growing up.

Date Posted: 7/6/2009