The Google China Standoff

By

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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.

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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.

Author Bio

Presented By:

Ying Zhu is professor emeritus at the City University of New York and director of the Center for Film and Moving Image Research in the Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. The recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, she is the author of four books including Two Billion Eyes: The Story of China Central Television and Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Movie Market (both from The New Press) and co-editor of six books including Soft Power with Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds. She is the founder and chief editor of the peer-reviewed journal Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images. She resides in New York and Hong Kong.