I don't know, this could turn into every country having their own internet, which defeats the purpose of the world wide web.Root problem
Radio Netherlands
Is China planning a breakaway from the Internet?
Analysis by Andy Sennitt
02-03-2006
The announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry that China
has launched its own Top Level Internet Domains (TLDs), registered
separately from those in the rest of the world, is at first glance a very
worrying development. It signals the politicisation of the Internet, and
appears to be a reprisal for the Bush administration managing to retain de
facto US control of the Internet last year.
The European Union, along with several other countries, including China,
wanted a UN body to assume control of the worldwide network including its
name servers. But the Americans managed to head off this move, and the
US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) remains
in control - at least for now. The Peoples' Daily specifically stated that
Beijing's decision "means Internet users don't have to surf the Web via the
servers under the management of ICANN of the United States," suggesting a
political motive.
Planning a breakaway?
Some observers are already speculating that this could be the first step to
a complete breakaway from the global Internet, meaning that China has total
control of what its citizens are able to view on their computer screens.
Bearing in mind the recent controversies over the apparent willingness of
major US software companies to agree to a "censored" version of the World
Wide Web in China, this belief has some credence.
And, since China is building strong links with a number of foreign
countries, including some in Africa, there is a real fear that these
countries could move away from the global Internet and join the heavily
controlled Chinese version. That would mean that countries such as Zimbabwe
would be able to eliminate access to anything it didn't want its citizens to
see.
Another perspective
However a contributor to ICANNWatch.Org, which monitors and tracks the
action of ICANN and global domain name policy, has a less alarmist take on
the issue. Professor Milton L Mueller observes that "Many people see this as
a new development, but the three TLDs have been in existence for about two
years. Until now, however, the official Chinese line was that the names were
'experimental,' even though tens of thousands of names were being sold under
them. My take is that they have 'come out of the closet' in their use of new
TLDs. And the coming out throws out an explicit challenge to ICANN, telling
the world that Internet users [in China] will no longer have to use the
ICANN root."
"This is being widely described as an 'alternate root.' Technically, this is
true: it functions the same way as an alternate root. But in reality it is
something more interesting (and dangerous?): it is a national root, a way of
keeping the Internet bounded to a political jurisdiction so that it can be
regulated more easily. China is not attempting to replace ICANN's root
globally. It is not interested in adding TLDs for markets and users outside
of China. It is interested in locking Chinese-speaking users within China
into a DNS root under its own control."
Technological assistance
However, the technology that permits China to exercise such control can
easily be adapted for use in other countries. So, for example, if Zimbabwe -
which has already used Chinese help to install shortwave radio jammers -
asks for assistance in installing a "national root" system, it would
probably receive a favourable response from Beijing. In other words,
although China may be officially "not interested in adding TLDs for markets
and users outside of China", it might be persuaded to help other countries
to create their own national roots. That would be a very worrying
development.
The People's Daily does say that the three new TLDs are "temporarily set",
which is why I suspect that this is as much about political posturing as it
is about doing anything more drastic. As China is hosting the Olympic Games
in Beijing in 2008, I can't believe there would be any advantage in breaking
away from the global Internet. And, of course, should it do so, ICANN could
retaliate and cut off China's English-language sites from the outside world.
I don't see that happening, and I suspect that pragmatism will win over
posturing.
Press freedom concerns
However, the fact that China has the ability and desire to install its own
"national root" is, as Professor Mueller says, a worrying development that
does raise concerns about press freedom, especially if the idea spreads
beyond China itself. You can imagine countries such as Iran and Cuba wanting
to take advantage of a system that gives them ultimate control. Of course,
there could be ways round it, such as satellite-delivered Internet from
outside the country. But hopefully that scenario will not arise. It should
become clearer in the coming weeks and months exactly what effect Beijing's
decision is having on the Internet within China. Only then will we really
know for sure if there's a new serious problem or not.
Why should there be a China Wide Web, Cuba Wide Web, Iran Wide Web, Zimbabwe Wide Web.. for a lot of the people in Cuba and Zimbabwe, I'm sure their only lifeline to the rest of the world (if they can even afford it) is the internet.
When someone like Mugabe gets that little bit more control, it makes life every bit harder for the citizens.