<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB111256713595396581,00.html>
The Wall Street Journal April 4, 2005 COMMENTARY Technology Transfers Help Further Repression By FRED ARMENTROUT April 4, 2005 Those advocating the lifting of the arms embargo that was imposed on China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown may try to claim that Beijing has cleaned up its human-rights record, and thus can handle the responsibility that would come with an inflow of sophisticated-weapons technology. Beijing's use of previous technology exchanges, however, calls that claim into question. Chinese authorities have benefited from information-technology transfers with the West to further hone their skills of repression. China's domestic-communications capacity is expanding exponentially. Related technology-transfer businesses from foreign suppliers are booming, and according to Gartner Consultants, at least three Chinese IT companies will become significant global competitors by 2010. This evolution has been helped by a radical reformation of the country's media. Two years ago the government and Communist Party bodies were banned from the management of commercial publications. According to the media-freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, by 2003 the emergence of major media groupings in the written press and broadcast media had expanded to 2,000 newspapers, 9,000 magazines and 2,000 television channels. What can be bad about all this? The answer is nothing, as long as you don't rock the boat. Just look at what happened to Jiang Weiping, Xinhua reporter and former Dalian bureau chief for the Hong Kong newspaper "Wen Wei Po" when he tried to investigate corruption and social issues. His articles on Chinese corruption were published in the Hong Kong magazine "Qianshao" (Frontline), leading to the state's prosecution of two officials. The outside world recognized good journalism and the Committee to Protect Journalists gave Mr. Jiang an International Press Freedom Award that same year. In China, however, Mr. Jiang received a very different kind of recognition. He was charged in May 2001 with "revealing state secrets," "instigating to overthrow state power" and "illegally holding confidential documents." After a secret trial, he is now serving a six-year prison sentence. Another 25 Chinese journalists were imprisoned in late 2004, just for doing their jobs. China is on course to eventually overtake the U.S. as having the largest population of Internet surfers in the world, but the spread of Internet usage has also led to growing means of repression. China is now the world's biggest prison for cyber-dissenters, with 62 known to be in jail. Merely for the act of expressing themselves on Web sites or in online discussions, these people are serving sentences of up to 15 years in prison. These days, to even wander into the wrong "chat room" and go googling for banned organizations in a cybercafe can be dangerous. China's absorption of the West's advanced routers for controlling access to the Internet assist a force of "cyberpolice" in a gigantic apparatus of monitoring and censorship called "Golden Shield." It employs, according to some estimates, as many as 30,000 people. As even this is not enough to contain the rapid flow of information, there have been other Internet innovations, like the "self-discipline" pact submitted to Web site operators in March 2002 by the Chinese Internet Association. This pact entails official news-media sites -- as well as both foreign and Chinese Internet companies -- to agree to "not to produce or disseminate harmful texts or news likely to threaten national security and social stability, violate laws and regulations, or spread false news, superstitions and obscenities." In 2002, authorities forced all Internet operators -- from Web sites to cybercafes -- to act as police auxiliaries. Cybercafe owners must install on all of their computers software capable of blocking access to what Reporters Without Borders estimates may be "as many as half a million websites" and to inform police of anyone who looks at what are alleged to be "subversive" sites. New kinds of "sniffing software" block access to specific Web pages, especially those on Tibet, Taiwan or human rights. In Jiangxi province, cybercafes were ordered to sell customer-access cards. These "smart cards" allow police to monitor Web sites they visit by checking the information retained in an individual's card. Google was blocked altogether in 2002, but authorities were so embarrassed by the resultant outcry at home and abroad that they now only block specific pages of the search engine. That's a temporary solution. To discourage surfers from going a-Googling at will, they've developed their own Google, "with Chinese characteristics," otherwise known as Chinasearch.com1. The government's Chinese Center for Internet Information joined with a domestic company, Sinobet, to create the new search engine. As of 2003, sina.com.cn2 and some 200 other Chinese sites had signed on for use of the laundered version of the world's favorite search engine, according to glowing government reports. Former U.S. President Richard Nixon once tried to assure Beijing that U.S. policy was constant in its efforts to assist in China's modernization, despite all the background noises. European leaders recently lured by the charm offensive conducted by Premier Wen Jiabao during his visit to the EU-China Summit, should note that even as he urged them to lift the arms embargo, a new wave of censorship and repression was being simultaneously unleashed. The Chinese people have in some ways benefited from IT technology transfers with the West, as it has helped further the spread of information. But the sad truth is that such exchanges have also aided Chinese authorities in their efforts to sow the seeds of oppression, which is a lesson that Western countries should keep in mind when contemplating further transfers with Beijing. Mr. Armentrout is president of the Hong Kong English PEN center. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. 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