Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
My Profile
Top News
Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day.
Subscribe
You are here:
Home
>
News
>
International
>
Article
Home
Business & Finance
News
U.S.
Politics
International
Technology
Entertainment
Sports
Lifestyle
Oddly Enough
Health
Science
Special Coverage
Video
Pictures
Your View
The Great Debate
Blogs
Weather
Reader Feedback
Do More With Reuters
RSS
Widgets
Mobile
Podcasts
Newsletters
Your View
Make Reuters My Homepage
Partner Services
CareerBuilder
Affiliate Network
Professional Products
Support (Customer Zone)
Reuters Media
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
U.S. urges China to scrap Internet filter plan
Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:03am EDT
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-]
Text
[+]
By Chris Buckley and Doug Palmer
BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Contention between China and the United States has spread to the Internet after Washington urged Beijing to abandon demands that personal computers sold in China from next week have filtering software.
U.S. trade officials said China's plan could violate international trade rules, and the quarrel threatens to become another irritant in ties when governments are looking to the United States and China to cooperate in helping pull the world economy out of its slump.
In a separate case, the United States and the European Union said on Tuesday they were complaining to the World Trade Organization over China's export curbs on some industrial raw materials. China rejected those charges, saying its policies were in line with WTO rules.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk voiced their concerns over the "Green Dam" software in a joint letter to their Chinese counterparts.
"China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues," Locke said in a statement on Wednesday.
China says the "Green Dam" filtering software is to protect children from illegal pornographic and violent images and has insisted the deadline of July 1 for all new computers to be sold with the software will not change.
An official at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, which handles trade rows, said the ministry had no immediate response to the U.S. criticism and referred questions to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which also had no comment.
Critics have said the program, sold by Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co, is technically flawed and could be used to spy on Internet users and to block other sites that Beijing considers politically offensive.
"Protecting children from inappropriate content is a legitimate objective, but this is an inappropriate means and is likely to have a broader scope," Kirk said.
"Mandating technically flawed Green Dam software and denying manufacturers and consumers freedom to select filtering software is an unnecessary and unjustified means to achieve that objective, and poses a serious barrier to trade," Kirk added.
The proposed new rules raised fundamental questions regarding the transparency of China's regulatory practices and concerns about compliance with WTO rules, the U.S. officials said.
GOOGLE DISRUPTED
The software plan coincides with criticisms of Google by China's Internet watchdog and access disruptions in China to the U.S. company's websites.
The watchdog last week ordered the world's biggest search engine to block overseas websites with "pornographic and vulgar" content from being accessed through its Chinese-language version.
Late on Wednesday evening, Internet users in China were unable to open several Google sites for around an hour. Continued...
View article on single page
Share:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
Yahoo!
Facebook
LinkedIn
Next Article:
Swiss to destroy papers in international nuke smuggling case
Iran's presidential election
Aftermath of Iran's election
Up-to-the-minute news, photos and video of the aftermath of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed election in Iran. Full Coverage
More International News
Iran's opposition vows to go on challenging poll
| Video
U.S. renews sanctions against North Korea
Roadside bomb kills five policemen in Iraq
| Video
Netanyahu says hopes for U.S. settlement understanding
Swiss to destroy papers in international nuke smuggling case
More International News...
Related News
China shuts sex health websites to ordinary users
2:03am EDT
Editor's Choice
Slideshow
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow
Most Popular on Reuters
Articles
Video
California set to issue IOUs as fiscal crisis weighs
Fannie, Freddie asked to relax condo loan rules: report
More than "renewable" energy needed: Microsoft
South Carolina Governor Sanford admits extramarital affair | Video
Oscar behind the times with best-pic makeover
A few extra pounds can add years to your life: study
Buffett laments that U.S. economy has "no bounce"
Obama steps up push for healthcare reform this year
U.S. renews sanctions against North Korea
Lawmaker accuses Fed of "cover-up" in BofA deal
Most Popular Articles RSS Feed
Video
Missing SC governor returns
Star-struck teenager sues
Global drug appetite waning?
Israel radio voices Iran unrest
Formula One split averted.
Pop star builds 3 schools for poor
Boy escapes runaway car
More Oscar contenders
Solstice celebrated au naturel
Bra banks booming
Most Popular Videos RSS Feed
We want to hear from you
Join the Reuters Consumer Insight Panel and help us get to know you better
Please take a moment to complete our survey
Reuters.com:
Help and Contact Us |
Advertise With Us |
Mobile |
Newsletters |
RSS |
Labs |
Archive |
Site Index |
Video Index
Thomson Reuters Corporate:
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Professional Products |
Professional Products Support |
About Thomson Reuters |
Careers
International Editions:
Africa |
Arabic |
Argentina |
Brazil |
Canada |
China |
France |
Germany |
India |
Italy |
Japan |
Latin America |
Mexico |
Russia |
Spain |
United Kingdom |
United States
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.