August 14th, 2009
China explodes Green Dam
In a rare retreat, it now looks like the Chinese government has given up on Green Dam-Youth Escort.
The New York Times reports that the information technology and industry minister, Li Yizhong, said the idea that the program would be required to be installed on all computers sold in the country was a “misunderstanding” created by poor drafting.
The Thursday statement by Mr. Li appeared to make that suspension permanent. Mr. Li said the government would neither require the program to come pre-installed on new computers or force computer makers to include the program on a CD with optional software.
Even so, the software is still mandatory in Internet cafes and schools. Writing for the Atlantic, Daniel Indiviglio writes:
That must have been quite a misunderstanding. U.S. computer companies were pretty sure the regulation required the software on all computers they would sell in China. So sure that their complaints led to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk sending a joint letter to China demanding that the regulation be altered, or else they would formally lodge their grievance to the World Trade Organization.
