Google vs. China: Considering Threats to Internet Freedom


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Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.


Materials | Handouts

Warm-Up | Tell students to imagine that they are forming an activist group to protest the government. How would they communicate and plan to meet? How would they find information that they need? How would they connect with others who are interested in joining the cause? Invite responses and list their ideas on the board.

Cross out all mentions of technology and social networking — like cellphones, Facebook, Twitter or Google — on the board, and tell them to imagine that the government is using its power to limit activists’ ability to use these tools. What then? Again, invite responses. What ideas do students have for getting around such restrictions or for organizing without them? How much would these restrictions hamper their ability to organize?

You might share with them recent stories of government crackdowns on protesters using technology to communicate and mobilize in Iran and Moldova.

Ask whether students have heard of other cases of governments trying to limit people’s use of technology. If no one mentions it, tell them that China has recently come under fire – and Google has threatened to pull its operations there – when evidence was discovered that the Chinese government had hacked into the Google accounts of journalists and human rights advocates. (Note that China has denied the charges.)

Have students share their reactions, and, if necessary, review information about China and communism for context and background.

Ask students to speculate what the Google hackers in China were trying to do. Ask: How might such actions – and the threat of other such violations – affect citizens and activist groups in China? How do such actions pose a threat to other nations? How can a country defend itself against cyberattacks?

Share this quote from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Jan. 21, 2010, speech on Internet freedom: “Those who disrupt the free flow of information in our society or any other pose a threat to our economy, our government and our civil society. Countries or individuals that engage in cyberattacks should face consequences and international condemnation.” Ask: Do you agree or disagree with Secretary Clinton? Why? What kinds of threats is she referring to? How, if at all, do you think the United States government should respond to the news about China’s actions with respect to Google?

Tell students that they will read more about and discuss China’s censorship of the Internet, starting with today’s featured article.

Related | In “Scaling the Digital Wall in China,” Brad Stone and David Barboza report on how Chinese citizens have tried to evade government censors:

Jason Ng, a Chinese engineering school graduate who will say only that he works in the media business, wakes every day at 8:30 a.m., and then begins his virtual travels through an open, global network by fanqiang, or “scaling the wall.” He connects to an overseas computer with a link, called a proxy server, that he set up himself. It costs 15 renminbi, or around $2, a month to share with about two dozen other friends.

Mr. Ng then works on his blog and checks the news on Google Reader and Twitter to “officially start my day of information.” Chinese citizens engaged in such practices say the government rarely cracks down on them individually, preferring instead to go after prominent dissidents who publish information about forbidden topics online.

As a result, college students, human rights activists, bloggers, journalists and even multinational corporations in China are rushing to use tools that go over or around barriers set up by Chinese regulators, in part because they feel it is the only way to participate in a global online community.


Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:

  1. What kinds of sites has the Chinese government blocked access to?
  2. What sorts of tools do Chinese citizens use to circumvent the government’s digital blockades?
  3. What is Global Internet Freedom, what is the Falun Gong, and what is the connection between the two?
  4. How is the United States government getting involved in Internet freedom?
  5. How does the very structure of the Internet make it easier for citizens than government censors to accomplish their goals?



Activity | Hand out copies of the overview on the Times Topics page on Internet Censorship in China and the handout China, Google and the United States: An Overview (PDF), which consists of passages from Times articles.

Tell students to work in pairs to read and process the information, highlighting or underlining pertinent information and jotting down thoughts and questions in the margins or on the back. Alternatively, read some or all of the information aloud, to reinforce students’ listening comprehension skills, while they jot down key points.

Then ask: What topics are censored in China? Who does the censoring? Who monitors and censors Web sites in China? Why do the companies comply? Why is Google considering pulling out of China? How and why has the federal government gotten involved in the dispute between Google and China? What are the business, political, human rights and other key issues here? What sections of the reading did you mark, and why? What other questions do you have?

On the board or chart paper, write this list vertically: ordinary Chinese citizens, netizens, dissidents, Chinese government, American government, Google. Jot down students’ ideas and comments under each grouping as they take turns offering ideas about the group you point to: what it wants and what it would most likely accept as fair treatment.

Go through the list again, this time naming groups in a different order. Repeat this process as many times as necessary to elicit ideas. Encourage students to, instead of preparing what they will say in advance, listen carefully to the other ideas about different groups in order to respond as specifically as possible, raising their hands rather than waiting for you to name “their” group when an immediate response is most appropriate.

You might use these questions to guide the discussion:

  • Citizens and netizens: Do ordinary Chinese citizens and its self-described “netizens” mind the Internet limitations? How do some people bypass the blocks on certain Web sites? Is this dangerous? Why do some people not object to the limits?
  • Chinese dissidents, journalists, human rights workers and other activists: How do they use the Internet? What threat might they pose to their nation’s government? What recent event shows that their online activities are being monitored and sabotaged? What person or groups are most likely responsible?
  • The Chinese government: What is its philosophy toward individual rights and freedoms? Why? How has it countered Google’s claims of a cyberattack originating within China? How has it responded to Secretary Clinton’s call for China to cooperate with Google in investigating the Gmail hacking? How does it justify breaking its agreement with Google regarding filters? How does it keep its people from rebelling? What limits is it facing?
  • The American government: What stance has it taken in regard to Internet censorship in China and elsewhere? What is the “double standard” the Chinese have identified regarding United States Internet freedom? Do you agree this argument is just? Why or why not? How is it fighting cyberterrorism and Internet censorship?
  • Google: Why has it threatened to cease operations in China? What were its original conditions of doing business in China? What values are at stake here? What are its business interests and how are they at work here?

To wrap up, have students come up with ideas for what Google and the United States government should do to combat cyberterrorism and restrictions on Internet freedom, returning to Secretary Clinton’s statement that a cyberattack is an attack on all countries as a basis for response. Invite them to consider various types of responses, including diplomacy, censures, technological techniques, business models and more. Ask students to draw on what they learned in this lesson to explain their positions more fully.

Going Further | Students can go online to research issues that China censors, like Tibetan Buddhism, the Falun Gong and the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

They might try comparing the results they get from and or merely trying to figure out why the Chinese government wants to restrict access to information on these topics. Alternatively, they might restrict their search to, noting that there is no freedom of the press in China.

Give students the writable Censoring the Press handout (PDF) to write about the information they found while researching. When they are finished, have them share their findings.

Standards | From McREL, for grades six to 12:

Language Arts
4. Gathers and uses information for research purposes.
7. Uses reading skills and strategies to interpret a variety of informational texts.
8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes.

World History
45. Understands major global trends since World War II.

United States History

1. Knows the characteristics and uses of computer hardware and operating systems.
2. Knows the characteristics and uses of computer software programs.
3. Understands the relationships among science, technology, society and the individual.
4. Understands the nature of technological design.
5. Understands the nature and operation of systems.
6. Understands the nature and uses of different forms of technology.

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Americans are so funny to analyze these meaningless things for Google and China. In 1989 Tiananmen Square Event, all of the western countries tried to block China from all aspects and China didn’t give in. Right now, China is 10 times stronger, do you think China will listen to US and those western countries? Not mention Google, such a small unimportant company only!

The classroom activities described above seem like a great way to indoctrine American students into become biased against the Chinese and viewing Chinese people as their enemy. Are the Americans preparing for a war with China in the future? If this is what the teachers are teaching their students, I guess the answer is obvious.

This is great, much more useful and relevant than the stuff I had to sit through 6-12.

Tell students to imagine that Al Qaeda and Taliban are forming an activist group to protest their government and the US, and planing a new round of suisidal bombing in New York and London. How would they communicate and plan to meet? How would they find information that they need? How would they connect with others who are interested in joining the cause? Invite responses and list their ideas on the board.

Cross out all mentions of technology and social networking, such as cellphones, Facebook, Twitter or Google on the board, and tell them to imagine that the government is using its power to limit those TERRORISTS’ ability to access and use these tools. What then? Again, invite responses. What ideas do students have for getting around such restrictions and/or for organizing without them? How much would these restrictions hamper their ability to organize?




Thank you for the interesting home work. In the last 24hrs, a search of “Dalai Lama” using Chinese Characters (per // yielded very different results in US versus Chinese Google sites. Only 4% of sites are allowed in China by Google (54,900 hits vs. 1,270,000 total). The first hists are propaganda against the Dali Lama. The brave Pooh-Bahs at Davos are too scared to even mention this. Nice brave new world we are going it to.

The FACT that happened near Senkaku Islands

(The ship of the Japan Coast Guard stopped a suspicious ship of China that had invaded the Japanese territorial waters on Sept.7th,2010.)

The Japan Coast Guard ship brought alongside to a Chinese ship. The staff of the Japan Coast Guard boarded it. Afterwards, the Chinese ship suddenly left the sea route.
One left staff of the Japan Coast Guard was kicked by Chinese crew. He fell into the water from a Chinese ship.To crush the staff who had fallen into the sea, the Chinese ship changed the course.The staff swam desperately to run away. Chinese crew tried to stab him to death with the harpoon. The Japan Coast Guard ship stopped to rescue the staff and the rescue was started. Chinese ship approached from the rear side. The staff was almost crushed. The staff managed to be carried up from the back to the Japan Coast Guard ship. The Chinese ship collided with the back of the Japanese ship after a few seconds. The hull of a Japanese ship damaged seriously.
All parties concerned who had seen the video said that this was an attempted murder.