In June 2011, Google Inc. and the government of China got into yet another verbal scuffle. It seems two US officials had their Gmail accounts hacked as well as Chinese political activists and other officials across southeast Asia. Google was able to track the origin of the attacks, and they came from Jinan, China which is actually the location of a large intelligence operation for the Chinese Army.
Upon learning this, Google made some implications that the attacks may have come from the government of China in an attempt to gain classified information. Google and China have been going back and forth for years because of disagreements about censorship. As discussed in an earlier post, China had Google censor some search results for many years until Google decided to quit doing so, saying they don't believe in internet censorship.
What is scary about the uptight relations between Google and China is the overall clout of both of them. We have the most populated country in the world, lead by a very controlling government going against one of the largest corporations in the last few years, based out of the USA, whom already has many people against them. Even though Google has nothing to do with our government, they certainly represent us and China is not afraid to include the USA in the arguments. So two of the most powerful countries in the world are jabbing at each other about the internet, even though our government is not involved. Hopefully Google can represent the USA well and this does not escalate into anything more serious.
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