back to article Clinton throws down the gauntlet to China over Google

Hillary Clinton has demanded that Beijing investigate the widespread hacking attack on Western businesses that has prompted Google to threaten to leave the country. The US Secretary of State made the demand in a speech on internet freedom in Washington DC, in which she claimed the free movement of information strengthened …

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  1. Eddy Ito
    Coat

    more importantly

    Was the gauntlet made of china?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    As my Chinese colleagues like to say

    The way the Chinese People tell if the Chinese Government is lying is that it is speaking.

    1. Blain Hamon
      Paris Hilton

      I was about to say...

      Save for diplomatic posturing (which it assuredly is), what's the point of asking China to investigate?

      Assuming they were behind it, they'll just claim it was by some rogue tibetans or something, forge up some evidence, and use it as an excuse to do even more of their usual hijinks. And if they weren't behind it, there's little discernible way to differentiate between the previous possibility.

      1. dan 16

        That's not me, its them

        How come Tibetans can do such an attack?

        Internet has been shut down in Tibet to prevent ... hold down a second - that's a good idea. Lets retablish Internet in Tibet and accuse that axis of evil.

        Alternatively, there are a couple of Ouigours in Gantanamo - they are not guilty (just visiting) but now that I am thinking about it

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yanks

    "Prayers will always travel on higher networks. But connection technologies like the Internet and social networking sites should enhance individuals' ability to worship as they see fit... We must work to advance the freedom of worship online just as we do in other areas of life."

    I believe in a man that lives in the sky and gets angry when you wank!

    Where do you guys find these people?

  4. J 3
    Coat

    Hillary Clinton has demanded...

    ...and China will answer "up yours, bitches, or we stop the money flow!"

    But in a diplomatic way, of course.

  5. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Clinton does herself a mischief and God, badly . What a pathetic loser.

    "Prayers will always travel on higher networks. But connection technologies like the Internet and social networking sites should enhance individuals' ability to worship as they see fit... We must work to advance the freedom of worship online just as we do in other areas of life."

    Oh dear...... that was real stupid Hillary, bringing worship and prayer, which is synonymous with preaching and religion to CyberSpace. Are you quite Mad, dear? It is Technology, and Brains and Alien Thoughts Shared Ruled ITs Universes, or are you suggesting that you worship a Great Alien Being who listens to prayers on higher networks ..... which would be surely confirmation of the earlier question, dear.

    Wow, a Crazy 67th United States Secretary of State ...... http://tinyurl.com/CrazyGal ..... which explains so much.

  6. heyrick Silver badge
    Grenade

    Higher networks

    "Prayers will always travel on higher networks."

    IPv6? So _that_ is why I can't get it working on XP. I can resolve an IPv6 DNS address, but can't connect. Now I know to just close my eyes and...

    ...oh, wait, that's not working either. Definitely a protocol mismatch here.

    [I'm giving this the seriousness it deserves; can't Americans say anything to the media without mentioning or alluding to God; is it possible?]

  7. Mike VandeVelde
    Big Brother

    pot yadda kettle yadda yadda

    "Clinton reeled a list of actions by oppressive regimes against bloggers and the like"

    I don't suppose she included things like the FBI instigated raid on RackSpace because of IndyMedia back in 2004 that took down hundreds of innocent websites as well, or the way Facebook censors pictures of mothers breastfeeding, or the way thousands of USA citizens are fined thousands of dollars for sharing music, or the that the USA is right now pressuring other countries to cut file sharers off of the internet entirely through the ACTA negotiations. Thought not.

    Let's see. In China you are blocked from certain websites that supposedly "threaten political stability". In the west they are working on blocking you from the internet entirely if you share music. Which sounds more "oppressive"?

    I think it's more a case of "We've worked *SO* *DAMNED* *HARD* to hype up our friendly neighbourhood citizen monitoring services like Facebook and Twitter and Youtube and Flickr, literally to the point where people can't read any magazine or newspaper or receive any news broadcast without hearing mention of how social media is the future and everyone not on board is a dinosaur, and then China comes along to spoil the party by blocking them and forcing their citizens to use their own home grown alternative citizen monitoring services. Stop stop! How are we supposed to kech dem terrists wink wink nudge nudge"

    Give me a break.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hahahahaaaahahaha - dumb and dumber

    This keeps getting better and better. Now Google is being cut off from news sources it obviously seeks to generate the news itself.

    First off, I know the egos of these guys are enormous even for US calibrated measures of "normal", but hello. A group of Silicon Valley repetitive stain sufferers threatening a full sovereign government the size of China? The only conceivable reaction to that must have been outright laughter, followed by a fun session composing a response. I bet they have been drawing straws on who was allowed to deliver it, and bets must have been made on that person being able to keep a straight face throughout. The right response would have been "Let me hold the door for you on your way out", and I suspect that hasn't happened because it's more interesting for the Chinese to play this one out and see what's *really* behind it.

    Secondly, sure. You're a US company and nobody has been along asking you to help out with data gathering. Google, the biggest privacy threat on the planet (even MS has never dared this one). And you go to China, and employ Chinese people, and you expect this to be clean and espionage free. They would not need to do a remote attack, sorry, and if they're that capable they would have hidden origin too. They are NOT stupid. These are the people that take a microchip and copy it - ever tried that? Umm, and the pot - kettle thing gets in the way, who sponsors that thing called "Echelon" again? Oh, but you don't spy on your own? Carnivore? FBI getting data with a Post-It (page 45 of the report)?

    Thirdly, go uncensored? Ah, yes, you're not doing to well in China. So breaking the local law is the way to fix this? This from the company who censored CNET after they turned the tables on Eric Schmidt? Interesting idea, but at least it explains events in Switzerland and Japan as well. The bad news is that it won't work. US laws do not apply abroad, full stop, especially not if you piss off the locals.

    The longer I look at this the clearer it is that the detected hacks were merely a pretext, an excuse. No idea what's really going on, but it's not some Silicon Valley dudes whining about a hack, unless they had "something to hide"..

    This is a game at a much higher level, and I think we haven't seen all the pieces of it yet.

    (yes, I'm paranoid, but simple answers do not appear to fit events).

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Perhaps ...

    ... a better approach is to formally request co-operation of Chinese government, administration and officials in tracking down a cyber attack that seemed to be at least transiently located in China?

    Similar topics/threads about a UN venue increasingly seem a necessity especially if a social model of the web is to prevail over a business model.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Legal backdoor monitoring v illegal state-sponsored hacking

    Didn't the attempted hacking try to use the 'back door' put in place to allow the US government to *legally* monitor traffic not to invade people's privacy. And of course the US goverment would only use it against terrorists not freedom fighters.

  11. Brock Knudsen

    better have a sabre to rattle...

    To which China was heard to say...

    "Or What?"

    "nothing"

    "Yeah I thought so"

  12. Cucumber C Face
    Troll

    free movement of information

    We assume the USA's protection of freedom of religious and political expression will extend to Islamic extremist websites, Al-Qaeda manuals etc?

    In which case Hillary had better be kicking El Gordo and Nu Labour's asses next.

  13. Rattus Rattus

    Although I don't believe her...

    nevertheless, "Bravo, Hillary. Now please come to Australia and repeat what you've said to OUR government, who seem intent on forcing us down the path China's taking."

  14. alien anthropologist
    FAIL

    @Mike VandeVelde

    Mike said: Let's see. In China you are blocked from certain websites that supposedly "threaten political stability". In the west they are working on blocking you from the internet entirely if you share music. Which sounds more "oppressive"?

    Lemme see. So-called "sharing music" is an act by fucktards that is equivalent to stealing (but as no bytes are harmed, only musicians, that is fine). The other is attacking free speech, freedom of association, and free thought and expression..

    Of course, the two are similiar and comprable.. in the twisted and demented minds of some...

  15. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Sunny Oracle ....? Or Great Game Virgins Impudently Popping Impotent Old Guard Cherries?*

    "This is a game at a much higher level, and I think we haven't seen all the pieces of it yet." ..... Anonymous Coward Posted Friday 22nd January 2010 00:39 GMT

    It sure is, AC, and when played at the highest of levels, the GOD Global Operating Device Level for Independent InterNetional Remote Command and Control of Intellectual Property Spaces, where Brains are Washed and ReProgrammed to Server as Slave Units to the Mother and Father of All ZerodDay Dream Scenarios [or if you are Manic Depressive Paranoid Schizophrenic Psychopathic Apathetic, a Doozie of a Groundhog Day Nightmare]..... and it is as well to Realise that at such an Entry Point, to Imagine IT as an Ending to a Journey rather than the just the Baby Steps Beginning of AICreative Processing of Information which Presents to You via Binary Manipulation and Rearrangement of Digital Signals, Future Reality Phormations and Big Picture Product Placements, would be your Progress Severely Curtailed and your Input denied Output for Future ProgramMINGs, some of the key pieces are always well highlighted, and snaffled, with the likes of ......"This post has been deleted by a moderator", which always has one asking, who is the moderator working for?

    And here ...... http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2010/01/20/microsoft_emergency_ie_update/ .... there has been a veritable blitzkrieg on key pieces in the Great GOD Global Operating Device Games which are Freely Sharing ITs NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive Triggers ...... Activation CodeXSSXXXX.

    And there you were, probably still just not thinking that El Reg was just a quite good magazine, rather than a Centre of Virtual Excellence for Exotic Vulture and Erotic Culture MemeStreams.

    * Questions, Questions, Questions ..... Always with the Questions for Answers.

  16. ShaggyDoggy

    Next century ?

    Hillary, we're 10 years in already, you can now refer to it as "this century".

  17. Winkypop Silver badge
    FAIL

    Deity's for Internet Freedoms!

    Sign up today

    Pray now!

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Welcome

    US meet China, meet new top dog

    The US seems to be demanding China explain herself a lot these days, from blowing up its own satellites in space, testing its own missile defence shield, to this.

    All while believing America "doesn't need a permission slip" to do as she damn well pleases. It is not surprising China sees the US as laughable and hypocrites, as other countries increasingly do as well.

    America is no longer seen as a guiding light to lead by, the dominating force she once was. She has flushed her reputation down the john over the last decade. God Bless G W Bush and the Neo-Conservatives.

    Welcome to the New World Order.

  19. Tony Paulazzo
    Unhappy

    King Arthur

    >This is a game at a much higher level, and I think we haven't seen all the pieces of it yet.<

    There's lies, damned lies and then governments.

  20. Tom 13

    Mrs C B-slapping her husbands and her campaign contributors in public?

    Why, you'd think her party lost a safe seat in an election this week or something.

    [insert your favorite appropriate Shakespeare quote here. Today my choice would be "sound and fury signifying nothing" but I'm quite certain there are at least a few others.]

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