In September this year, China’s president Xi Jinping visited The White House and had a conference with President Obama on how both countries can curb cyber attacks.
At the 7min mark, President Obama expressed America’s concern over China’s tight control of freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of the press and religion and human rights.
“and i expressed, in candid terms, our strong view that preventing journalists, lawyers, NGOs and civil society groups from operating freely, or closing churches and denying ethnic minorities equal treatment, are all problematic in our view, and actually prevent China and its people from realizing its full potential. Obviously we recognize there are real differences there, President Xi shared how he can move forward in a step by step way that preserves Chinese Unity…”
China’s crackdown on dissidents in the country has been ongoing, with tightened internet censorship and regulations dominating NGO activities, and rounding up of human rights lawyers to be jailed.
Many of the elites in urban China view this control as embarrassing, and are becoming increasingly resentful of the government. A CEO in his early 50s shared “We can’t understand what they are doing. Economic policy seems chaotic, the parade was embarrassing, and everyone is afraid to say anything critical of the government. This is not where I and my friends thought we’d be in 2015” (Powell 2015).
At 25 mins, President Obama spoke about China and America’s efforts to counter cyber attacks :
“We have made significant progress in agreeing to how our law enforcement and investigators are going to work together, how we’re going to exchange information, how we’re going to go after individuals who are engaging in cyber crimes or cyber attacks. And we have jointly affirmed to the principle that Governments don’t engage in cyber espionage for commercial gain against companies.”
The strong ties that China and U.S have is evident, as both superpowers look to each other to ensure their influential position globally. U.S has been the global defender of freedom and democracy since the collapse of Communism and China has been reborn as a progressive and rapidly growing economy, with a bigger vision to be a regional influence (Dixon 2015).
It is no surprise, therefore, that both countries would have a strong stand on the usage of Tor as anonymity online present great threats as well as advantages that will have a huge impact socially and politically not only in both countries, but also to the rest of the world, considering the huge global influence they have.