On May 23rd, I arrived at the Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) in early evening, around 7:30PM. The flight with EVA Air from Taipei to Beiing was absolutely fantastic compared to the flight with Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to Taipei. I’ve never had so much leg room on any flight, specially on a short 3-hour flight.

Walking into the Terminal 3 of the airport, a giant brightly-lit futuristic complex with no one around, was intimidating at first sight. This terminal is massive. According to Wikipedia, in itself it’s larger than all of London Heathrow Airport’s five terminals combined, with 17% to spare. It’s divided into two sections, and when you arrive you immediately have to get on the inter-terminal people mover (train) to reach the main section of the terminal where incoming luggage and customs are located.

I followed the group of travelers from my plane along with a group of security/military outfit-clad youth who also entered the people mover. On the other side I picked up my luggage and headed towards the customs/border security, where my picture was taken and the guard kept staring intently back and forth at my face and my passport for several minutes. I felt like I was in China, at last.

I exchanged US dollars to Yuan at the airport, but was so eager to get to the hostel I’d reserved through hostelworld that I forgot to buy a SIM card for my cell phone. Bad move.

A lot of people opt to take taxis from the airport to the city. However, Beijing has an exceptional metro system that connects the airport directly to the inner-city metro. The Airport express express (¥25) took me straight from Terminal 3 to the Dongzhimen metro station. There I got on the metro (¥2) and headed to the Qianmen station. Unlike in Montreal, one thing to be careful in metro stations, both in Taiwan and China, is that the you need to save the entry ticket in order to be able to get out.

I arrived in central Beijing, at Qianmen station, around 10PM. I had a map in hand which outlined exactly which way to head. I needed to go into Qianmen Dajie/Street (前门大街). However, I quickly realized that the metro exit had led me to a square (Qianmen Square) from which there were streets eminating towards every direction.

I had no idea which way to go.

If you’re a solo traveler standing in center of a megalopolis at night, where you can’t speak the language and don’t know a single soul, those aren’t exactly words you want crossing your mind.

Pointing at my map and using broken signs, I tried to ask someone coming out of the metro if they could point me in the right direction. Before heading to China I was amply warned, by people of Chinese background, that people in Beijing would be cold and unhelpful. Proof in concept: the woman completely ignored me. Ouch. Cold-shouldered by my first Beijinger. I was not looking forward to the next two weeks.

I looked at the map really hard again and tried to position myself. As I’d learnt in my time in Taiwan, in Mandarin, ‘lu’ and ‘jie’ both mean ‘road’ or ‘street’. I looked across from the square, and there it was, ‘Qianmen’… perfect! I crossed the street and started heading into the street. I didn’t get very far before I was sufficiently creeped out though, telling myself this rather dark street dotted with construction sites couldn’t possibly be the same street I’d looked up on Google Streetview. Had it been day I’d know this was ‘Qianmen Donglu’ (the East road) and not Qianmen proper.

Walking anxiously back to the square, I found a policeman. There are tons of them there, actually. He couldn’t speaking English, but directed me towards a little kiosk on the other side of the road, beside the actual Qianmen Dajie. The giant gates and the shining lights tipped me off.

I went into the “tourist” kiosk just as they were closing. I showed the two guide girls inside the map to my hostel, which was in a street coming off Qianmen Dajie. The girls didn’t speak English, and tried to point me towards the direction of the place. I nodded… hesitantly. They could tell I was exhausted and confused. One girl pointed at me to wait as she closed the kiosk and said goodbye to her friends.

I assumed she was going to come outside the kiosk and show me the direction and leave. But she came beside me and motioned for me to follow her. I followed her down Qianmen, then we headed into the narrow long Dazhalan Xijie/West Street (大栅栏). In middle of the way she actually grabbed one side of my suitcase handle to help me out and before long we were standing in front of my hostel, the 365 Inn. Crisis averted. Though, it wouldn’t be the last time I’d rely in the kindness (and warmth) of Beijingers.

Things just got a little more interesting in the world of cyberpolitics.

Google revealed today that they’ve detected a sophisticated attack on their infrastructure originating from China back in December, an attack which they say impacted more than twenty other large companies in various sectors. Specifically, the attackers attempted to access Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google does not lay blame on any specific party, however, it does indicate that it is reconsidering its approach to China.

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn

Externally Google has been pressured by various NGOs and governments with respect to its approach in China since it decided to censor its search results in the country. A move which some claimed was antithetical to the Company’s mantra “Don’t be evil.” In fact Google along with other search results faced a US congressional hearing back in 2006. Nonetheless, many queries in google.cn continue to deliver this note as part of the results: ” 据当地法律法规和政策，部分搜索结果未予显示。” or “According to local laws, regulations and policies, some search results are not shown.” Until today, it appeared that the revenue from China outweighed the costs.

With this move, the pendulum has clearly shifted. However, many questions remain regarding how decision was arrived at and how it will play out: Whether the costs of operating in country have become too much compared to the net revenue (to the tune of 22 billion dollars in the second quarter of 2009)? Or if Google is simply finding its infrastructure too vulnerable in the country? Has Google returned core values with respect to freedom of information, or caved in to external pressure regarding China’s censorship policies? Will China comply with Google, or will they reach a compromise? And if Google does indeed pull out of the Chinese market will its place be filled with other foreign search giants like Yahoo, or will it set precedent?

This is really the first major news this decade about cyber-attacks. Cyber-attacks have become commonplace in recent years, however in this case the economic and diplomatic stakes are incredibly high. Beyond the scope of the attack on Google, and the battle of the nerds… cyberwarfare between nations is not such a remote possibility as the internet and information technology take a more prominent role in national infrastructures. The following is an excerpt from a piece I wrote late last year on the transformation of war:

“… Constructivism takes an optimistic approach towards norms and progress. However, while norms can change to ameliorate conflict among nations, they can just as easily bring an ever-changing face to war. Indeed the 20th century was witness to a shift in the paradigm of warfare that took conflict from the trenches into cities. The democratization of war was a shift in norms which instead of creating taboos of war, propagandized war. This led to even more destructive weapons and created a situation where wars were supplied by, and waged on citizens. It is possible that even if the killing of human beings as a part of warfare becomes taboo (to the extent that state-sanctioned slavery is today), war itself might evolve. Going back to the definition of war, it is an act that is a means and not an end; and certainly any act that engages two parties in aggression, and achieves the desired outcome by force may constitute warfare. For example, in a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on technology, cyber attacks are becoming increasingly threatening^*. Equipment disruption, invasion of data banks and information highway can all be considered modes of cyber warfare. This type of warfare would not require massive troop mobilization; and it may not lead to civilian casualties, unless that is desired. But compromising critical systems in a nation could paralyze it and threaten its security. This type of warfare would have little resemblances to historic wars, however, it would achieve the same outcomes.”

*Hildreth, S. A. (2001). Cyberwarfare. Congressional Research Service policy paper.