25 West 43rd Street, Room
1000
between 5th & 6th Avenues,
Manhattan
Information is
key to the new
global
geopolitical and
geoeconomic
frontier. In a
fight to
regulate
information
flow, the
Chinese
government has
blocked Facebook,
YouTube,
Twitter, and
censored
information that
it deems
detrimental in
the name of
“Chinese
national
interest.” Last
year Google
refused to
comply with
Chinese
censorship laws
and moved its
search engine
servers to the
relatively free
Hong Kong,
leaving room for
Chinese
homegrown search
engine Baidu to
expand
significantly.
The Google
China Standoff
calls attention
to the
restricted
nature of
cyberspace and
the visibility
of the state in
regulating,
virtually,
national
borders. As
political
interest is
imbued with
economic
interest, the
long-fought
global trade war
is now on
information.
Meanwhile,
unfiltered
information is
becoming a
precious good
for netizens.
