John Kerry backs Internet freedom in Beijing visit

Beijing --

A group of Chinese bloggers asked the United States to take up the cause of Internet freedom in an unusual meeting Saturday with Secretary of State John Kerry.

One by one, the bloggers voiced concerns to Kerry, who arrived Friday to discuss regional issues with China's leaders, that the ability of Chinese citizens to gain access to information was under siege, and that the country's prospects for becoming a democracy were uncertain at best.

"Will you get together with the Chinese who aspire for freedom" and help "tear down this great firewall that blocks the Internet?" asked Zhang Jialong, a reporter for Tencent Finance, which reports on financial issues.

Zhang, who was detained for three days in 2011 because of his posts about conflicts between the artist Ai Weiwei and the Chinese authorities, asked Kerry to look into reports that U.S. companies had helped the Chinese government establish controls over which websites Chinese citizens could access.

Ma Xiaolin, a former correspondent with the official news agency Xinhua who is a co-founder of a blogging site, said websites had become the main sources of news and expressed hope that the Chinese government would ease its Internet controls if U.S. relations improved.

Seeking to reassure the bloggers, Kerry said human rights were a perennial issue in his meetings with Chinese officials and that he had repeatedly taken up the cause of media and religious freedom. He said he had not heard the charges that U.S. companies had helped the Chinese authorities maintain control over Internet access but promised to look into the matter.

"Obviously, we think that the Chinese economy will be stronger with greater freedom of the Internet," Kerry said.

During the meeting, Kerry sometimes seemed inclined to see a glass half full, while the bloggers were worried that it was emptying. Kerry said U.S. officials were working on many fronts. On democracy in China, he said, "A slow progress is taking place."

While elections "are within one party" in China, he said, there is often "a very vibrant debate at the local level."