U.S. pressing China "Green Dam" concern on all fronts
By Reuters
June 26, 2009 7:48 AM GMT+8
Updated June 26, 2009
By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States still hopes it can persuade China to abandon, or at least delay, its plan to require controversial filtering software on new computers, despite growing trade friction over the issue, a U.S. trade official said on Thursday.
"The U.S. government will remain focussed on the problem and use diplomatic and other available means as necessary to resolve it," said Debbie Mesloh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office one day after top American officials urged Beijing to drop the plan.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on May 19 that all personal computers sold in China must have the "Green Dam" Internet filtering software as of July 1.
Chinese officials said the filter is necessary to prevent children from having access to pornographic websites.
But critics say the software, sold by Jinhui Computer System Engineering, is technically flawed and could be used to spy on Internet users and to block sites that Beijing considers politically undesirable.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke urged China in a letter on Wednesday to abandon the plan, which they said would mean U.S. companies would be required to preinstall software "that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues."
They objected to the short six-week notice that China gave for the new requirement and said there were complaints from global technology companies and media groups about the software.
If unresolved, the issue is likely to be a sore spot in upcoming U.S.-China meetings, including the Strategic and Economic Dialogue planned for late July, the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade this autumn and meetings between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
Locke and Kirk also hinted at a possible case at the World Trade Organisation, but those can take years to resolve.
One U.S. industry official, who asked not to be identified, said the Obama administration seemed to be emphasizing commercial concerns over the human rights aspect of the issue because China was more likely to respond to that.
The United States exported computers worth about $541 million (328.7 million pounds) and computer parts and accessories worth $1.5 billion to China last year. That paled in comparison to the $25 billion in computers and $27 billion in parts and accessories it imported from China in 2008.
Reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Chris Wilson
中文翻译（机翻）：
美国在各层面施压中国“绿坝”问题
路透社
2009年6月26日 上午7:48（GMT+8）
更新于2009年6月26日
作者：道格·帕尔默
华盛顿（路透社） - 尽管围绕此问题贸易摩擦日益加剧，美国一名贸易官员周四表示，美国仍希望说服中国放弃或至少推迟其要求在新电脑上安装具有争议性的过滤软件的计划。
美国贸易代表办公室发言人黛比·梅斯洛表示：“美国政府将继续关注这一问题，并将根据需要使用外交和其他可用手段来解决它。”此前一天，美国高级官员敦促北京放弃该计划。
中国工业和信息化部于5月19日宣布，自7月1日起，中国销售的所有个人电脑必须安装“绿坝”互联网过滤软件。
中国官员表示，该过滤软件是必要的，以防止儿童访问色情网站。
但批评人士认为，由金惠计算机系统工程有限公司销售的该软件存在技术缺陷，可能被用于监控互联网用户并屏蔽北京认为政治上不受欢迎的网站。
美国贸易代表罗恩·柯克和商务部长加里·洛克周三在一封信中敦促中国放弃该计划，他们表示该计划将要求美国公司预装“似乎具有广泛审查影响和网络安全问题”的软件。
他们反对中国仅提前六周通知这一新要求，并表示全球科技公司和媒体团体对该软件提出了投诉。
如果这一问题得不到解决，预计将成为即将举行的美中会谈中的敏感点，包括计划于7月底举行的战略与经济对话、今年秋季的商务与贸易联合委员会会议，以及奥巴马总统与中国国家主席胡锦涛在11月亚太经合组织峰会前后的会晤。
洛克和柯克还暗示可能在世界贸易组织提起诉讼，但此类案件可能需要数年才能解决。
一位不愿透露姓名的美国行业官员表示，奥巴马政府似乎更强调商业关切而非人权问题，因为中国更可能对此作出回应。
去年，美国向中国出口了价值约5.41亿美元（3.287亿英镑）的电脑以及价值15亿美元的电脑零件和配件。这与2008年中国向美国出口的250亿美元电脑和270亿美元零件和配件相比相形见绌。