The Chinese are no longer playing a game of whispers when it comes to mouthing off about Google’s smackdown two weeks ago, with the country’s media now openly dissing the Internet giant, and the US government too for good measure.
It seems that Hilary Clinton touched something of nerve behind the bamboo curtain when she openly defended Google’s threat to shut down its Chinese portal and pull out from behind the bamboo curtain unless the relentless hacking and Internet censorship demands ceased.
“It is not difficult to see the shadow of the U.S. government behind the politicization of the Google affair,” ranted Communist newspaper, People’s Daily, adding that US politicos were using Google “in an effort to restrict China’s right to protect its national security and interests on the Internet.”
Funny, we always thought Google was using the Obama administration, not the other way around.
Google, of course, now that it has made its grand gesture to much worldwide acclaim and fawning over its wonderfulness, continues to filter out content the Chinese government finds “sensitive” (like massacring unarmed students in Tiananmen Square) and says it wants to talk to China about its issues.
Unsurprisingly, the Chinese have seen through the offer for exactly what it is; a capitulation. “Perhaps Google has already realized that China can do without Google, but without China, Google does not have a future,” notes the paper insightfully.
The Google affair isn’t the only thing making the Chinese red with rage, however. The Middle Kingdom is also royally peeved about Obama’s plans to meet the Dalai Lama, the US’ ongoing efforts to arm Taiwan and a couple of crises over currency and trade. Which rather puts the whole Google dilemma into perspective really.
Still, trying to mediate it all and make the two superpowers play nice, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu has called for a little bit of respect for both nations’ “core interests and critical concerns.”
Indeed, now enough of all this wonton sniping!
