China and the US have a basic failure to connect. YouTube, the online video portal, found itself blocked in the Middle Kingdom days after a video purporting to show police beating a Tibetan protester found its way onto screens worldwide. The West's free media, like its free-market thinking, looks like another sacred cow China can live without.
It’s not the first time the internet has failed to penetrate the Great Wall of China. Google, YouTube’s owner, has also been reportedly blocked in the past, as have Yahoo, Facebook and the New York Times website. In most cases, including the latest, China officials claimed no knowledge of deliberate censorship.
The timing, though, is especially delicate. It is the 50th anniversary of Beijing taking control of Tibet. That could be a flash-point for social unrest, which China’s authorities are determined to avoid. It’s also just days before president Hu Jintao joins nineteen other world leaders for the G20 summit, a grandstand for international co-operation.
Friction has been building. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has made barbed remarks about other nations' profligate spending habits, and mused on a devaluation of the dollar. Coca-Cola, an American icon, was blocked from buying a Chinese fruit-juice maker for no good reason. The central bank governor even proposed replacing the dollar as the world’s de facto reserve currency, a further slap to Uncle Sam.
Censorship, protectionism and criticism may raise eyebrows in the West – but they’re unlikely to do much more. That’s because in the great global imbalance, China is the lender, and the US the borrower. China still needs the rest of the world, but it can increasingly dictate the terms, online or off.
Amid all the talk of finding a global solution to financial woes, this great power play will loom large in London next week when the G20 leaders gather. Spotting the fake smiles will make for compelling viewing – for those allowed to watch, of course.