China has shown its true colors by "hijacking" three major US-based Internet search engines, Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (
Shieh was responding to foreign wire service reports that Chinese Internet users trying to search on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Web sites have been directed to the Chinese-owned search engine Baidu since Tibetan spiritual and political leader in exile the Dalai Lama was awarded a US Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.
The reports said China is likely retaliating for the award and for US President George W. Bush's appearance in public with the Dalai Lama -- the first time a US president has met him in public.
Shieh said that although China is already notoriously authoritarian, it was nevertheless shocking that the leadership would dare to cut off the flow of Chinese visitors to the three major search engines.
The move also indicates the duplicity in the "peace overture" to Taiwan made by Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in his speech at the 17th Chinese Communist Party National Congress, Shieh said.
Hu called for an end to cross-strait enmity and for a cross-strait peace pact under Beijing's "one-China" vision.
Beijing's methods of blocking freedom of information, such as redirecting traffic from search engines and blocking Web sites including YouTube and Live.com, show why China deserved its ranking at the seventh from the bottom of Reporters without Borders' 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index released on Tuesday, he said.
Google has confirmed that its Chinese site is being blocked and the traffic redirected, while Microsoft said it was looking into the matter.
"It seems like China is fed up with the US, so as a way to fight back, they redirected virtually all search traffic from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to Baidu," analysts Danny Sullivan and Barry Schwartz wrote at Search Engine Roundtable, a Web site that focuses on Internet search engines.
The authors said it was not clear how the searches were being redirected, although it is known that Beijing uses a variety of filters to block what it deems to be inappropriate information on the Web, such as search results related to the Dalai Lama.
"Some have accused Baidu of hijacking the traffic, but we think it's likely that China is upset with the US over the award it granted to the Dalai Lama and is retaliating by hurting US-based search engines," Sullivan and Schwartz said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS