US Secretary of State Urges China to Investigate Cyberattacks on Google

Secretary Clinton delivers her speech at the Newseum, in
Washington today. (EPA photo)

During a landmark speech about Internet freedom, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today called on Chinese authorities to investigate the cyberattacks that have pushed Google to the brink of abandoning its China operations.

"The most recent situation involving Google has attracted a great deal of interest and we look to the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review of the cyber intrusions that led Google to make its announcement," she said during a speech delivered at the Newseum. "And we also look for that investigation and its results to be transparent. The Internet has already been a source of tremendous progress in China, and it is fabulous there are so many people in China now online."

Clinton added that, by restricting freedom of expression and of information on the Internet, any country risks missing out on this century's progress. But she also said that the US intends to address these issues with China "candidly and consistently in the context of our positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship."

She also insisted that having an open Internet that respects individual freedoms and access to information is not only the decent thing to do, but it also makes business sense.

"Countries that censor news and information must recognize that, from an economic standpoint, there is no distinction between censoring political speech and commercial speech," she said. "If businesses in your nations are denied access to either type of information, it will inevitably impact on growth."

Google immediately reacted by praising Clinton's words.

“At Google we are great believers in the value to society of unfettered access to information,” the company said in a statement.

Google also promised that it will work with governments, human rights organizations and bloggers to promote freedom of expression and increased access to information on the Internet, according to BusinessWeek.com.

But China was not the only target on Clinton's speech.

"In the last year, we've seen a spike in threats to the free flow of information," she said. "China, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan have stepped up their censorship of the Internet. In Vietnam, access to popular social networking sites has suddenly disappeared. And last Friday in Egypt, 30 bloggers and activists were detained."

Clinton warned that these restrictions are violations of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that "a new information curtain is descending across much of the world" because of these practices.

We welcome Secretary Clinton's words. What remains to be seen is whether those words will do anything more than rattling the cages of so many repressive regimes around the world.