From: Alex Strasheim <alex@proust.suba.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 02:15:59 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: China
Message-ID: <199602081727.LAA01429@proust.suba.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


I've seen a couple of pointers to information about China's ambitious
attempt to build their own censorable net, but not a lot of discussion. 
The Chineese net strikes me as a very signifiant (and very negative)
development.  

In a worst case scenario, I could see them shopping their net around the
world as an alternative to the Internet.  China's size might make it
possible for them to put together something that might be in the
Internet's ballpark as an information resource, especially for technical
and commercial applications.  This would make it attractive to other
countries -- Islamic, for example -- who want to use networking to stay 
competitive economically with the West, but who are unwilling to allow 
information to flow freely.

A split between a Western net and a Chineese net would have important 
political, cultural, and economic reprecussions;  it could be the 
cyberspatial version of the old iron curtain, with information policy 
rather than economic policy as a dividing line.

I know that the Chineese net won't have bullet proof security, and the
crypto anarchy model tells us that the attempt is doomed to failure over
the long run.  That's probably true, but there is a chance that it might
not be.  No one, including the Chineese, is going to expect perfect
security.  But everyone ought to expect a real and substantial chilling
effect on the free flow of ideas.  It doesn't seem at all unlikely that
they'll be able to have the same sort of success controlling ideas online
as they have with printed material. 

We ought to speak out against this Chineese net, and start asking
questions about Western companies that are collaborating in its
construction.  

All of this, incidently, puts a new spin on the exportability of crypto. 
We've always assumed that exporting crypto meant that individuals and
businesses would be able to have control over their own tools.  But what's
our posisition if RSA wants to sell tools to the Chineese government that
will be used to affix signatures, perform validation, and generally
control the flow of ideas?

We ought to allow the free export of any crypto tools to any country for
any reason.  But if there are going to be any restrictions at all, it 
ought to be on tools used for anti-democratic controls.

--
Alex Strasheim, alex@proust.suba.com