China Slammed For Internet Blocking

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) accused U.S. firms of assisting China in its censorship of the Internet, and called on governments to prevent such cooperation in the future. The comments came as part of a UN-sponsored forum on Internet governance in Athens, Greece on Tuesday.

Specifically, RSF was referring to companies like Yahoo and Google, which have made concessions to operate within the country. For example, the Chinese version of Google omits certain Web sites and material that the Chinese government may consider subversive.

China purchases equipment from a third-party reseller of Cisco Systems, which it then reportedly alters to allow it to block nearly 20,000 Web sites within the country. However, representatives for Cisco shot back that they had nothing to do with the censorship and that they do not sell customized routers.

But perhaps the most interesting comment of the day so far came from China, defending its practices. According to the representatives for the country, the government does not block Web sites.

"In China, we don't have software blocking Internet sites. Sometimes we have trouble accessing them. But that's a different problem," CNET News.com reported the Chinese official as saying. "I'm sure I don't know why people say this kind of thing. We do not have restrictions at all."

Regardless of the comments from the Chinese government, it is all but certain that some type of Internet blocking system exists in the country. Several independent studies have confirmed its existence, and occurrences of blocking are well documented.