When people complain or talk about why chinese government is filtering or blocking internet websites, the topic is always about censorship + control of information, but i believe its not just for filtering, but to allow their own chinese internet companies compete vs global or american brands…..
I have had this talk with some chinese internet friends as well, and they think of it this way-
What if there is a war, or a political dispute between usa and china? If all the data, servers, hosted information is on usa soil….then who has the “upper hand”?
As an american, i never think this way….many innovations start in usa and grow internationally….i blog about copying products overseas last year…..and rationalize why should the rest of the world wait and hope for the US company to enter their market?
I have talked to some europeans, and when i say its innovation, they call it money! They say wall street has all the money, and therefore chooses to fund companies and projects that are american managed and owned over international ones. It was a little bit heated of a talk, as i believed growing up in free minded, opportunistic america was the reason for innovation whereas he felt it was due to moneyflow and international countries (ie his european country, i forget now) had just as good of innovative and groundbreaking ideas and startups just not the funding to support them.
So maybe china has some logic to this internet filtering…..as much as i dont like it, probably everyone in china would be on facebook now….and the chinese versions (some say copy/paste versions….) may not be thriving as much as they are now.
Then you think about it politically, with usa officials saying this internet filtering in china is wrong….and add that to rumors google leaving china that turned true and you can be lead to believe maybe it is american attempting to gain control…..as the new internet and virtual world is where the power will be in the future, the influence, the money…..of course usa wants chinese people using google and facebook……..
Sure. That is a bit of stretch on the motives of the us government pushing chinese officials to take down the GFW (great firewall)….. But why does usa want iraq……i dont wanna get too political here, but its more about control of oil flow then anything Maybe flow of information is the new “oil” of the future But another thing that sparked this blog….in philippines, almost everything is foreign owned! I felt like i was in a state (province) of usa! And philippines is so poor…….so, if it were to control information and investment in its country like china does, would its people be richer and owners of their own businesses today?
Just food for thought…….i hate the GFW and anyone who tries to control what i say or do, i love the idea of “freedom of speech”…but i am putting some additional perspective on why countries may filter or ban foreign websites.