Top navigation

My account

Welcome

Login Register

China denounces US calls for open internet

Matt Grainger

by Matt Grainger
Friday, January 22nd 2010 at 10:59AM

China denounces US calls for open internet

China has rejected a call by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the nation to lift its internet restrictions and investigate the hacking allegations made by search giant Google.

According to the BBC, Mrs Clinton had made a speech in Washington, arguing that by restricting information, the Chinese were “walling themselves off from the progress of the next century” and that the nation should investigate allegations of a sustained hacking campaign targeted at critics of the Chinese Government.

However, the Chinese authorities have reacted angrily to the criticism, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu calling them ‘groundless accusations.’

“The US has criticised China's policies to administer the internet, and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom,” commented Zhaoxu in a statement.

Meanwhile, Chinese state-run media outlet The Global Times has published an article saying that “unfettered cyber freedom is merely an impractical slogan.”

“Clinton's so-called Internet freedom is a freedom that is dominated by the US," Yu Wanli of the Peking University told the Global Times. "Ten of the 13 root name servers in the world are located in the US. They are the top hierarchy of the Internet, which means by controlling them, the US can define the freedom of the Internet. How can Clinton guarantee you a freedom if her country has the power to unplug you?"

Advertisement

Tags: Internet, hacking, china, criticism, reaction, clinton, hillary, restrictions

Related Stories