Spulber: Google ‘beneficial to the cause of freedom’ in China

About 40 students gathered in the Jacobs Center on Thursday night for "Is China Part of Google Earth?" a discussion led by Prof. Daniel Spulber about censorship in China and the recent hack of Google Inc.'s Chinese operating systems.

The China Foresee event was based on the mid-December cyber attack on Google's Chinese mainframe and 20 other major companies. Google announced the primary motive of the attack was to access Google mail accounts of notable Chinese activists to copy and read their e-mails.

The Google topic with regards to censorship was chosen for the group's winter event because of its sensitivity and importance to both the United States and China, said Xinyang Zhang, the group's president and founder. The group was founded to address common misconceptions about the Chinese people and culture, he said.

"I hope that a platform for discussion like China Foresee could be somewhat educational and informational to let more people in the Northwestern community get to know more about China," the Weinberg junior said. "People may still hold their own opinions after they come out of our events, but we hope that they may also have other new perspectives in mind."

Spulber, who has studied Chinese business and published several studies on Internet search and e-commerce, said despite Google's threats to stop censorship or leave China altogether, he does not think they will.

"Google was upset about the hacking," Spulber said. "But they need to stay because their competition is staying, like Yahoo and (Microsoft) Bing."

Until the attack, Google Inc. subsidiary Google China was cooperative in agreeing to requests by the Chinese government to block sensitive topics such as the Tiananmen Square riots from search results. This censorship and surveillance initiative is known as the Golden Shield Project, or the Great Firewall of China.

But on Jan. 12, the day the cyber attack was publicly announced, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond wrote on Google's blog it would no longer comply with those requests.

"We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn," said Drummond on the blog. "Over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law."

While Spulber said he has been critical of China's policies regarding censorship, he acknowledged it was a part of their history.

"Although there are great leaps in Chinese culture occurring, Mao (Zedong)'s legacy continues today," Spulber said. "Google's staying is beneficial to the cause of freedom. The more engagement we have with China, the more cooperation we will see in the future."
Meisi Wang, China Foresee's public relations chair, said she agreed with Spulber on Google's future position in China.

"Censorship in China might not be as great as advertised," the Weinberg sophomore said. "However, total freedom of speech has yet to be achieved, and I think it is absolutely essential that the government opens itself up for China to advance."

Spulber said he gave the talk because he thinks NU students should understand current world events.

"I am very concerned about Google's experience in China," he said. "It highlights the importance of liberty without government controls on speech, dissent, assembly (and) privacy."

justinnam2013@u.northwestern.edu