Clinton warns China, others over Internet restrictions

WASHINGTON — In a new warning to China, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Thursday for unfettered access to the Internet and said
countries that attack information networks should face “consequences
and international condemnation.”

Citing growing censorship in China
and other countries, Clinton said that “a new information curtain is
descending over much of the world.” She said the Obama administration
would rally other world powers to try to reverse the trend, and urged
private companies to resist censorship by foreign governments.

Clinton stopped short of detailing what approach the
administration would use to pressure other governments or to expand
Internet freedoms. She said governments and business first needed a
“very vigorous discussion” of how to handle a complicated issue.

Her comments in Washington, which aides billed as a major policy speech on Internet freedom, came as world attention has focused on Google’s threat to pull out of China
after cyber attacks on its networks, and intrusions into the e-mail
accounts of political activists there. The controversy has built
pressure on the Obama administration to explain how far it intends to
go to defend U.S. interests and human rights.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a talk with investors Thursday that his company was in
discussions with the Chinese government over the censorship issue. Google
is still censoring results for the Chinese version of its search engine
and will continue to do so for a “reasonably short time,” Schmidt said.

But he struck a conciliatory note by saying that although Google
would like to change the terms by which it does business with the Asian
nation, “we’ve made a strong statement that we wish to remain in China.”

Google’s decision may depend on a number of nuanced political and economic factors, said Marshall Meyer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
“They may be wanting to wait for a better day. That means no censorship
and — they can’t negotiate this publicly — no hacking.”

Despite its entanglement with China, Google said Thursday it posted $1.97 billion in profit in the fourth quarter compared with $382 million a year ago. Revenue rose 17 percent to $6.67 billion as the company sold more online ads in the U.S. and abroad.

Though Google beat expectations of many Wall Street analysts, its stock price dropped nearly 5 percent to $555 in after-hours trading. It was up slightly to $583 a share in regular trading.

Clinton’s speech comes at a delicate moment in U.S.-Chinese relations. Tensions have grown over President Barack Obama’s plans to sell arms to Taiwan and to meet with the Dalai Lama, and it is possible that those tensions could affect U.S. efforts to persuade China to join in a new round of United Nations sanctions against Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

Although Clinton did not spell out what sanctions the United States might use, Internet-rights advocates and some other analysts described the speech as a commitment to a greater American role.

“It’s a signpost that there’s going to be a shift in policy,” said Brett Solomon of Accessnow.org, which advocates for Internet freedom.

James A. Lewis, a former U.S. government technology specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
said Clinton’s speech would be a “challenge” to major countries that
have sought to join the world economy yet limit Internet freedoms — China, Russia and Iran.

He said it would also raise internal pressure on the
Chinese leadership, who are divided on whether to enforce Internet
rules that tend to isolate China from the world economy.

Chinese officials signaled again Thursday that they hope to keep the dispute a commercial issue, rather than a diplomatic one.

Speaking in Beijing, Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei, according to the official Xinhua news agency, said, “The Google case should not be linked with relations between the two governments and countries. Otherwise, it’s over-interpretation.”

Speaking at the Newseum, a museum of media history,
Clinton called for world powers to jointly develop new standards for
the Internet.

“In an interconnected world, an attack on one nation’s networks can be an attack on all,” she said.

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