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The White House supports Google against China
That the American government is stepping in can only mean that the ramifications of Google's maneuvering are potentially catastrophic. Friendship and agreements between the Western world and China have always been tentative and capitalism-driven at best, but for the White House to actually get behind Google and ask China for an explanation -- to potentially drive a wedge between the two most powerful countries in the world over a search engine -- well, we're going to be in for a wild ride.
This might just be preliminary strikes of the cyber war that Western nations and superpowers have been gearing up for in the last few years.
Comments
28
Subscribe to commentsScooterGJan 14th 2010 9:20PM
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ScooterGJan 14th 2010 10:11PM
In further irony, it appears that my post was censored...
Sebastian AnthonyJan 14th 2010 10:16PM
Oh, is that what happened? I wondered what the dots were for :)
ScooterGJan 14th 2010 10:43PM
"Oh, is that what happened? I wondered what the dots were for :)"
-Really??? Wow. Nice job AOL...
YpoknonsJan 14th 2010 9:54PM
The most populous in the world is more apt description - geographically the largest is Russia.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 14th 2010 10:06PM
Sure, but are we really going to take all of those Siberian wastes into account?
What next... you want to call Canada the second largest country in the world? Where does it end?!?!
YpoknonsJan 15th 2010 1:21AM
Going by that standard, it's not like inner Mongolia is all that densely populated either, so should it count? Geography is geography, population is population.
For that matter, how do you define China? Everything it claims, including Taiwan and Arunachal Pradesh? Depending on definition China can be bigger or smaller than the United States.
For the record, I am Chinese-Canadian-Australian, and hence have no incentive towards promoting Russia, only a conflict of interest between Canada and China.
ChrisJan 14th 2010 10:00PM
Capitalist driven?! Did you just post that? Implications catastrophic? The thing you fail to realize is that there is more here at stake than just two peaceful nations being driven apart by a search engine. We already are in a cyber war with the world. More than 80% of the United States cyber attacks come from China. Google is an American corporation and the United States government is trying to protect its people. How is this a bad thing? What if china was attacking your website and stealing information from you. Wouldn't you want your government to stand up for you? Or would you want them to tell you to go fight your own battles? Google has bent over backwards trying to make their presence in China. And sure, they are a corporation and they are trying to make money. But you can not deny that all of our lives have been enriched by Google and they are just trying to protect themselves. If you say that is being capitalist... Then why dont you just move to China? At least you'll have something in common with them. Well, hooray for capitalism!!!
Sebastian AnthonyJan 14th 2010 10:08PM
Calm down grandad!
I said the Western relationship with China has always been strained.
I'm not an economist, but I would hazard a guess that ideologically we don't agree with China -- so it's more likely to be about money, free trade, etc?
Bring free trade to China, grow their economy, improve the conditions of the nationals? Something like that.
But thanks for the suggestion that I visit: I hear China's lovely and has tons of neat stuff to see and do.
ElevatorHappyFunJan 14th 2010 10:01PM
This could be the beginning... of World War Z.
Watch out for shipping crates from China that are moaning.
Seriously though, this could be the "first" public display of aggression (from both sides)
chris varnerJan 15th 2010 10:04AM
Hyperbole, much?? Are you hiding in your bomb shelter, or have you decided to max out the credit cards and party like it's 1999? "Catastrophic"? Really?
sharkbaitJan 14th 2010 10:13PM
Cyber warfare. Think about it. Hacking the enemy's power grid to shut it down. Turning all of their citizens' computers into a botnet designed to DDoS government servers. Stealing intellectual property (like in this case). I can't even imagine what methods of attack will be used.
Like with virtually every other aspect of law, modern technology has greatly changed the rules: trade, anything involving copyright, patents, etc, and other things I currently can't think of. How would it change things with war? Did China start an undeclared war with us? Exactly how would one determine that? If the U.S. were to retaliate, would Congress (constitutionally) have to declare war first?
*Sigh*
Welcome to the future.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 14th 2010 10:17PM
You totally just ripped off that first paragraph from Diehard 4.0.
I think as another commenter said, we've been in some kind of cyber war for a while now. A cyber cold war, perhaps... slowly warming up... and now it might be SIMMERING!
ChrisJan 14th 2010 10:44PM
[quote]
Calm down grandad!
I said the Western relationship with China has always been strained.
I'm not an economist, but I would hazard a guess that ideologically we don't agree with China -- so it's more likely to be about money, free trade, etc?
Bring free trade to China, grow their economy, improve the conditions of the nationals? Something like that.
But thanks for the suggestion that I visit: I hear China's lovely and has tons of neat stuff to see and do.[/quote]
Granddad? is that the best comeback you can come up with? What does calling me granddad have anything to do with the conversation?
Strained is hardly representing the truth of the matter.
No one said anything about bringing free trade to China or trying to change anything about China. They attacked us, Google and the government are tired of being attacked and they want to know why. Why are you trying to make this look like it is and ideological attack from our government when China is the one attacking us? Is asking a question an attack?
Oh and I saw your sarcastic comment on your cyber cold war. Ignorance must be bliss. Why don't you read some papers on security and the attacks we get from China. Oh, wait, because our government obviously doesn't know what it is doing. Didn't you hear? We have a black president now!
Hey, I never said visit China, I said move. I was implying your were communist. See, that was this cool new thing that you know nothing about called sarcasm. I didn't see you use it anywhere in your comments. Ok I gotta take a nap now, this old "granddad" is tired of fighting with this ignorant baby.
Another ChrisJan 15th 2010 1:22AM
Yeah, you're right, "granddad" was a lame comeback.
*But* then you went and spoiled it by being blatantly racist. If you're going to stand there and spout off patriotism against the supposedly evil "communist"*, you should at least respect your country's voting system, belief in "all men created equal", and the thousands of people who fought and died so that a black man could have the right to be elected President.
*if it was supposed to be a shot at China, they're actually socialists.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 15th 2010 10:29AM
I thought 'grandad' was quite a good comeback :(
For what it's worth, I'm not American.
I'm simply stating that things have always been a bit iffy between the Western world and China, but we've stuck at it because a) the money's good and b) we ultimately think it helps the Chinese people (anything approaching democracy is a Good Thing right?)
I just think it's interesting that the US government might piss it all away -- or, perhaps more interestingly, the US government thinks Google is more powerful than China... :)
nicoleJan 14th 2010 11:06PM
I respect Google so much more now than ever...
VolomanJan 15th 2010 1:08AM
Agreed, i would have their babies. Go Google. Hope my nexus is in the mail.
@Seb & Chris:
You girls need to quit fighting.
@Sharkbait & Elevator:
LOL
IcarusJan 15th 2010 1:47AM
I'm really proud of the government for once about this. Sounds like the stakes are rising so China can't just shrug it off this time.
r3loadedJan 15th 2010 5:28AM
I think the US government are quite justified - this is a freakin' botnet we're talking about. A BOTNET BY A STATE ACTOR!!!