Internet giant Google Inc on Tuesday made a shock threat to quit China, the world’s biggest Internet market by number of users, after hackers accessed human rights activists’ e-mail accounts.
“These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered — combined with attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the Web — have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China,” Google chief legal officer David Drummond said in a statement.
“We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China,” he said.
TENSIONS
The hacking intensified Sino-US frictions as Washington said that Internet control was a serious issue and demanded an explanation from Beijing.
“The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday.
“We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions,” Clinton said in a statement in Honolulu. “We look to the Chinese government for an explanation.”
Beijing has not made any significant comment on Google’s allegation.
Chinese authorities were “seeking more information on Google’s statement that it could quit China,” Xinhua news agency reported, citing an unnamed official at the State Council Information Office.
China has said it does not sponsor hacking. Its officials have also accused the West of seeking to undermine China’s one-party rule by backing dissidents and campaigns against censorship.
Google said the hackers in the recent attack had tried to break into Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, but only managed to access two unidentified accounts, and could only see subject headings and other data such as when the account was created.
It did not say what information the hackers tried to access from other companies, nor which they were. Google said it was now notifying the other affected corporations, adding it was working with US authorities.
A Google spokesperson said the company was still investigating the attack and would not say whether Google believed Chinese authorities were involved.
A New York Times report on its Web site quoted James Mulvenon, an expert on Chinese cyberwarfare capabilities, as saying: “A United States expert on cyber warfare said that 34 companies were targeted, most of them high-technology companies in Silicon Valley. The attacks came from Taiwanese Internet addresses.”
Microsoft, whose rival Hotmail e-mail service is also available in China, said it had no indication that any of its mail properties had been compromised in China.
CHINESE SUPPORT
Meanwhile, Google’s announcement drew applause, warnings and bouquets from dissidents and Internet activists yesterday, with few seeing much chance of the wary government giving ground.
At the company’s China headquarters in Beijing’s university district, a dozen locals laid a bouquet of red roses and white lilies on Google’s sign at the entrance to the company.
They praised the company, shouting some salty Beijing slang.
“We want to express outrage, but not at Google. Coming here is a type of support for Google,” IT worker Zhao Gang, 30, said.
“Google faces very strict and adverse conditions in China. Something we knew in our hearts is now out in the open. I believe it’s a watershed moment for the Internet in China this year,” Zhao said.
Chinese activists have long complained that the Communist Party has tightened its grip on the Internet, stifling the spread of information and ideas in the name of public safety and morals.
“The surprise isn’t the hacking or censorship. That’s everywhere here,” said Liu Ning, a writer and blogger in Beijing. “The surprise is such a big company breaking the silence about all these problems ... Until now, they’ve kept quiet.”
Yet even Chinese dissidents who welcomed Google’s stance saw little chance of Beijing bowing to the renewed pressure, worried the country’s 360 million Internet users could be exposed to banned news and ideas, especially challenges to one-party rule.
“Our space for expression on the Internet has been narrowing, because government control has become increasingly detailed and pervasive. I don’t see that relaxing,” said Xu Youyu, a Beijing academic who has campaigned for broader human rights.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS