Us Firms In China) China's government is pretty awful in a lot of obvious ways, but it is not some cackling, cartoon vulture perched atop the nation. I was, for example, shocked to discover when I first arrived here how easily Chinese (city-dwellers, at least) accepted state family planning policies. In a country where nationalist sentiment runs high and is easily provoked, it is liable to backfire. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders this week backed a law banning an American company from hosting an e-mail server in any "repressive" country. I have used the Internet since 1993 and run my own website or blog for much of that time. Their shareholders will punish them ruthlessly if they aren't aggressively pursuing the Chinese market. When you leave space, forces opposed to your interests will likely fill it. The result is that no matter what we do we risk patronizing the Chinese Internet users we want to help, and driving them further away. Either could cause business problems and damage brand and shareholder vale. While they are communicating, US Internet companies need to be mindful that their audiences include the US government, their US customers, the Chinese government and Chinese customers and that public messages must be considered in that context. I diy auto air conditioning cold dog in symptom spent several years working as an Internet and e-commerce consultant before moving into technology PR. Rather, they would likely seethe with nationalist contempt for companies that "get" China and for foreign governments that are trying to dictate what is good for China. I think this is a major addition to the dialogue on this issue. Thursday, January 26, 2006 9:05 PM BBC's website is blocked but many international apartment buildings get BBC World. Where once there was isolation there are deepening international connections.. Back in September, when the Yahoo/Shi Tao affair was emerging, I wrote the following: I wonder if it will start impacting technology firms internationally. As a result, China is visible in the US in a way that very few foreign countries are. Thursday, January 26, 2006 12:57 AM BBC's website is blocked but many international city of union cityca apartment buildings get BBC World. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Human Rights, which he heads, will hold a hearing in early to mid- February. The man-eating otter of Changbaishan China Blog Aggregators & Indexes Cliff Coonan (The Independent) James Fallows (Atlantic Monthly) Stefan Landsberger's Collection University of Westminster Collection Media, Censorship & Public Relations Internet Censorship Explorer (B) Committee to Protect Journalists Digital Influence Mapping Project Saturday, January 14, 2006 3:55 AM Saturday PR blog: Congress to grill US net firms on China The US government has begun to take note of what American Internet firms are doing in China. It is not a caricature dictatorship or a Kim Jong-il-style one-man fiefdom (at least, not anymore). This doesn't excuse the bad things that the government does, but it highlights that we are not talking about a Myanmar-style irredeemable military dictatorship or a 2000 toyota tacoma 4x4 sub-Saharan kleptocracy busy reducing its people to ever greater penury. Filed under: China, PR & Media (Old), USA, Technology re: Saturday PR blog: Congress to grill US net firms on China Saturday, January 14, 2006 5:08 AM Will,
Extremely well thought out and said. Second, running a polluting refinery or setting up sweatshops in third world countries, to pick just a couple of examples, are reprehensible. If you ask random Americans on the street to name a freedom guaranteed by the US Constitution, chances are that "freedom of speech" will be at or near the to of list. But I think the CNET article above illustrates the countervailing risks of following a strategy of opacity. Shi Tao case: Yahoo absolved legally, not morally Thursday, March 15, 2007 6:49 AM In the last day or so there has been widespread tamron 90mm f 2.8 coverage of the acquittal of Yahoo by the Hong Kong Privacy Tuesday, December 04, 2007 1:47 AM Here is this quarter's column for China Economic Review. Were I one of these firms, I would be extremely worried about the precedent that pressure on US Internet China isn't Myanmar, North Korea, 1980s South Africa or some other politically inconvenient backwater that can be isolated and forgotten liz soto hand bag about. But none of them will dare forsake the market on famous songs by mozart principles, and that leaves them In retrospect, I should have said, "put college students and congressmen in a righteous snit". Not that they need to at the moment. Think about the progress this represents. but i doubt how many westerners could have the same level of sophistication and knowledge of china. Wednesday, January 25, 2006 11:06 PM BBC's website is blocked but many international apartment buildings get BBC World. He does, however, represent other companies that do business with the Chinese government. At best, they offer a valuable alternative that still functions as altran corporation boston ma a gateway to a wider world, even if parts of it are missing. And it certainly doesn't excuse cloaking regime-preservation in the trappings of respect for social boundaries. 3 billion, the vast majority of whom are shockingly poor, you might interpret the role of free speech in society somewhat different than developed, Western countries. politicians are threatening to pass laws restricting a New Jersey Republican, said Thursday that the U. (Howard French's recent International Herald Tribune opinion piece on China's information control efforts is worth reading. re: Saturday PR blog: Congress to grill US net firms on China Saturday, January 14, 2006 11:24 PM Hi Will, Great post, and I agree with you about nearly everything in it, especially the conclusion that keeping western IT firms operating in China is better for all involved (Anti basically agrees. The implications of isolating it, were that even possible, visual basic using dlls run beyond inconveniencing a few American corporations and extend deep into the realms of foreign policy, economics and Asian security. (This is not, of course, solely an American issue, as VOiP operator Skype is now discovering. As ESWN has pointed out in a post worth reading, if a foreign company operating in China is served with a legal warrant by the authorities, it probably has no choice but to comply. Also, for balance, Daai Tou Laam Diary's different take on this issue, including his deconstruction of my own arguments. The second thing that caught me was, 'China is not the US. But what I hope that people take from this discussion is that these are debates worth having. ) I have mixed feelings about this situation. Where once there was only state controlled propaganda there is now a lively and growing commercial media, and a fair amount of access to international media. This is accurate and understandable, but as a PR holding statement it doesn't do much to diffuse the perception that western tech firms are knuckling under to a repressive government stocks in focus advisory in search of massive bucks. First, while many US companies do business in many dodgy regimes, none of those regimes is positioned as a major strategic rival to the US. In fact, that statement is couch to 5k plan broad enough to encompass any kind of company that does business with the Chinese government, which is to say almost any foreign company in China. |