In the beginning, companies created intranets to keep information inside. The next step is the national intranet - and China wants to build one. If you can't pony up the dough and don't fit the content profile, you and your business may not be allowed inside.
On Monday, the China Internet Corporation tapped Sun Microsystems to provide technology and equipment to build the backbone of the China Wide Web, the country's proprietary national network. Under the US$15 million deal, Sun will deploy enterprise and other corporate network servers over the next three years as the CIC constructs China's intranet to connect 50 cities.
The service, which will target businesses first, will be modeled after corporate intranets. Information and databases will be customized for the China Wide Web and will be available only to subscribers. The CIC plans to offer a host of services, including educational seminars to customers how to access and post information on the network, all for a small monthly fee.
"China's using this to develop its international business environment through telecommunications companies and ISPs," said Darlene Yaplee, director of international marketing for Sun.
Internet usage within China has been a source of concern for the Beijing government, which in September banned access to as many as 100 Web sites. Sites sponsored by The Wall Street Journal and CNN were among those banned along with Chinese-language pages featuring commentaries and news from Taiwan, Hong Kong newspapers, and overseas dissident sites.
But the corporate intranet model seems the perfect answer to Beijing's concerns. Central to the intranet construction is a security firewall which serves to keep employees within the confides of the network as much as it prevents intrusions by elements such as viruses and hackers. In the case of China, the firewall could help the government filter out information it doesn't want in the hands and minds of its citizens.
Likewise, the government can use the firewalls to keep CIC subscribers out of certain sites. But just how the CIC will implement the firewall technology, from CheckPoint Software, remains to be seen.
"In some ways, this is analogous to Polaroid providing technology [to China] to make ID cards which we knew were being used by the government to track people," said Sidney Jones, executive director of Human Rights Watch Asia.
The effect of involvement of companies like Sun is a matter of the application of the technology and how the company works with the Beijing government. Jones said the concern for human rights and censorship issues as businesses deal with China is how companies react to the government's wishes. If they conform to what Beijing wants, then the western involvement will do little to affect change.
But if the company uses its contact to ask probing questions about how the government intends to use the Internet, that could be enough to prod Beijing on its policies.
"We always act in line with our government's policies," said Sun's Yaplee.
