China’s Google Controversy
In a recent hard hitting speech the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized China's
policies on Internet administration and insinuated that China restricts Internet freedom. The remarks follow the unfolding Google controversy where in a most recent development Google has announced to end censorship and possibly pull out of China.The issue revolves around a series of events the latest of which involves alleged ‘highly sophisticated and targeted attack’ on Google corporate infrastructure ‘originating from China’. Further investigation apparently revealed that "a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists,”. Where the Chinese government has not directly been accused in these allegations, the implied responsibility is quite obvious. The shifting policies herald a major change for Google, which had originally abided by Chinese laws requiring some politically and socially sensitive issues to be blocked from search results in the country.
The Chinese Government has issued a stinging response to criticism that it is jamming the ‘free flow of words and ideas’ on the internet, accusing the US of damaging relations between the two countries by foisting its ''information imperialism'' on China.Cyber warfare has increasingly attracted attention at the diplomatic front in the twenty first century. Issues of regulation of the World Wide Web as well as offensive attacks on sensitive government information have been in the spotlight as has been highlighted in this most recent incident.
China, a stringent enforcer of censorship and regulation argues that all nations including the United States, that has in its opinion hypocritically projected a higher moral argument in the matter, takes necessary measures to administer the Internet according to its own laws and regulations. It cites events in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks when the U.S. Congress approved the Patriot Act to grant its security agencies the right to search telephone and e-mail communications in the name of anti-terrorism.
Russia too has been highlighted as another active entity in international cyber warfare. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates noted in a Foreign Affair’s article last year that Russia employed a relatively crude but brutally effective conventional offensive in Georgia which was augmented with a sophisticated cyber attack and a well-coordinated propaganda campaign.
The recent threat assessment reports of the US intelligence also highlight the evolving arenas of warfare and the US efforts to counter attacks. Reportedly the U.S. offensive cyber war capabilities have been focused on getting into Chinese government and military computers outfitted with less secure operating systems like those made by Microsoft Corp.
In the meanwhile China has developed more secure operating systems meant for government and military systems, hoping to make Beijing's networks impenetrable to U.S. military and
intelligence agencies. Officials described it as a growing war in cyberspace which they allege is often guised as civilian hackers on government payrolls.Internet's domain name systems too are a vital resource of the digital age. Because of an historical accident, a California-based nonprofit organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), oversees the administration of generic suffixes (such as .com or .info). Many countries believe such important functions should not be in the hands of a private-sector body. Many nations are wary that the U.S. government, which created the Internet, is ICANN's ultimate supervisor. They believe that the Internet, as a global resource, should be managed by the international community rather than by a single country, no matter how well intentioned. Hence the debate seeking a modified global regulatory system continues.
At present according to Mr. Coleman, a computer security specialist consultant to the office of the director of national intelligence and U.S. Strategic Command- China, the United States and Russia are matched equally in this new type of warfare. According to another analyst Mark Hosenball the U.S. government isn't that worried about all-out cyber warfare from China or Russia at all. He opines that it would not be in these nations’ economic interests. The primary concern at present is the threat of a nongovernmental actor such as Al Qaeda developing the required expertise. Such an evolved battle would be one in which, Gates notes, "The United States cannot kill or capture its way to victory".
In June last year, Defense Secretary Gates issued an order to establish a new military cyber command dedicated to coordinating the Pentagon's efforts to defend its networks and conduct cyber warfare. The command was expected to be fully operational by October this year. In this stead the Secretary of Defence decisively notes that the Pentagon has to do more than modernize its conventional forces, “it must also focus on today's unconventional conflicts -- and tomorrow's.”
Discussion Question:Is the potential threat for global cyber warfare involving rogue non governmental actors well founded?
Related Links/ Bibliography:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2010-01/28/content_9389148.htm
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/12/china-bolsters-for-cyber-arms-race-with-us/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/jan/13/google-china-cyber-war-security
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195107
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/57037/james-adams/virtual-defense
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/56857/nina-hachigian/chinas-cyber-strategy
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/61192/kenneth-neil-cukier/who-will-control-the-internet
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64240/kenneth-neil-cukier/no-joke
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65499/wesley-k-clark-and-peter-l-levin/securing-the-information-highway
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65947/the-end-of-the-beijing-consensus
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/google-threatening-to-lea_n_420857.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6981171/Googles-turbulent-five-years-in-China-a-timeline.html
________________________________________________________http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2010-01/28/content_9389148.htm
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/12/china-bolsters-for-cyber-arms-race-with-us/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/jan/13/google-china-cyber-war-security
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195107
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/57037/james-adams/virtual-defense
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/56857/nina-hachigian/chinas-cyber-strategy
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/61192/kenneth-neil-cukier/who-will-control-the-internet
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64240/kenneth-neil-cukier/no-joke
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65499/wesley-k-clark-and-peter-l-levin/securing-the-information-highway
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65947/the-end-of-the-beijing-consensus
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/google-threatening-to-lea_n_420857.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6981171/Googles-turbulent-five-years-in-China-a-timeline.html
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