GOOGLE , ORACLE YRGE U.,S TI OPPOSE CHINESE CENSORSHIP ( UPDATE )

JANE BRYANT QUINNJOHN DORFMANPORTFOLIO TRACKERCALCULATORSFINANCIAL GLOSSARY
Bloomberg
Bloomberg Anywhere
Updated: New York, Jun 12 23:34
London, Jun 13 04:34
Tokyo, Jun 13 12:34
Search
Symbol Lookup

HomeNewsMarket DataPersonal FinanceTV and Radio
Feedback
Popular:
PoliticsExclusiveMadoffIndustriesCurrenciesETFsDine & DealC-Suite
News

* Exclusive
* Worldwide
* Regions
* Africa
* Asia
* Australia & New Zealand
* Canada
* China
* Eastern Europe
* Europe
* France
* Germany
* India & Pakistan
* Italy
* Japan
* Latin America
* Middle East
* U.K. & Ireland
* U.S.
* Markets
* Industries
* Economy
* Politics
* Law
* Environment
* Science
* Opinion
* Spend
* Sports
* Arts and Culture
* Editors' Video Picks
* Bloomberg Markets Magazine
* Special Report


RESOURCES

* Bloomberg TV
* Bloomberg Radio
* Bloomberg Podcasts
* Bloomberg Press



More News
•
Dow Average Erases 2009 Loss as Bank of America Rallies; Treasuries Climb

•
Consumer Sentiment in U.S. Rises a Fourth Month; Import Prices Gain on Oil

•
Citigroup Investment Pays Taxpayers Triple Return of Standard & Poor's 500


Google, Oracle Urge U.S. to Oppose Chinese Censorship (Update1)
Share | Email | Print | A A A

By Mark Drajem and Todd Shields

June 12 (Bloomberg) -- A group representing computer and software companies including Google Inc. and Oracle Corp. petitioned the U.S. government to add the topic of online censorship to a trade summit with China, the world's biggest Internet market.

If the Obama administration acts on the industry petition, it may be the first time China's censorship policies would be discussed as part of trade negotiations between the nations.

"By engaging in Internet censorship, the Chinese government is creating a hostile market environment and preventing its citizens from fully utilizing new products and services provided by U.S. high-tech companies," the Computer & Communications Industry Association said in the petition today.

The industry group also criticized plans by China to require all personal computers, or PCs, to include software to block Internet pornography and other "unhealthy" content.

"If imported PCs are required to preinstall censorship software that some believe may cause operational problems for the PCs, that could constitute discriminatory treatment," the group said in the filing.

The association asked the U.S. Trade Representative's office to press China on these restrictions during this year's annual Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade summit. In previous years the U.S. and China have negotiated subsidies to the steel industry, China's non-market economy status in the U.S., curbs on U.S. meat exports to China and the piracy of copyrighted and patented goods in China.

Trade Tensions

The request from the group, which also represents Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. shows how trade tensions between the U.S. and China may grow as their commercial relations broaden and the effects of the global economic recession linger.

China ran up a record $266 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year, and has passed Canada to become the largest single source of imports into the U.S. That trade gap has prompted complaints from Democratic lawmakers, unions and small manufacturers that Chinese products are benefiting from unfair subsidies, an undervalued currency and low-cost bank loans.

NOTE: that trade gap has prompted complaints from decromatic lawmarkers.

Technology companies want a dialogue about the restrictions the Chinese government imposes on Internet use.

Twitter Inc.'s social-networking service and Microsoft's Bing.com search engine were inaccessible in China in the week preceding June 4, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. China ranks first worldwide in online censorship, according to Herdict.org, a project of the Berkman Center at Harvard, which compiles reports of Web outages.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net; Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 12, 2009 14:09 EDT

* Delicious
* Digg
* Facebook
* LinkedIn
* Newsvine
* Propeller
* Yahoo! Buzz

Advertisement: Get a risk-free $50,000 practice trading account at FOREX.com

Sponsored links

Bloomberg.comNEWS | MARKET DATA | PERSONAL FINANCE | TV AND RADIO | ABOUT BLOOMBERG | CAREERS | CONTACT US | LOG IN/REGISTER
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Trademarks | Site Map | Help | Feedback | Advertising | 日本語サイト
Open Web Site