Microsoft chief says it's better to work with China

US climate envoy calls for transparency during China trip
Beijing (AFP) May 26, 2010 - The US climate change envoy said Wednesday it was "hugely important" that all countries accept outside review of their greenhouse gas emissions during a trip to China, which has rejected such calls. "With respect to the issue of transparency, I think it's hugely important and we do put a lot of emphasis on it," said Todd Stern, who led US negotiators at the Copenhagen climate summit last December. "Countries need to be able to see what track the world is on generally, where we are going," said Stern, who was also part of the US delegation to high-level strategic and economic talks with China, which concluded Tuesday. "The only way we can do that is if there are clear and transparent measures with respect to the inventories of greenhouse gases, what measures are being put in place by countries and so forth."

Speaking at a climate change seminar at Beijing's Tsinghua University, Stern said nations also need to be able to have confidence that other countries are doing their best to meet their climate change goals. China, the world's top source of the gases blamed for global warming, has said it will not accept outside reviews of its efforts to slow emissions. The United States is the world's number two greenhouse gas emitter. Beijing has pledged to reduce its carbon intensity -- the measure of emissions per unit of gross domestic product -- by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 based on 2005 levels. Under that plan, however, emissions would continue to climb for many years. More than 190 nations are negotiating a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol to fight climate change, which UN scientists warn could bring growing disasters and threaten entire species if left unchecked. At the Copenhagen summit, industrialised countries pledged to deploy up to 30 billion dollars from now until 2012 to help kickstart climate action in poorer, developing countries.

On Tuesday, Yvo de Boer, the outgoing head of the UN's climate forum, urged rich nations to make good on that promise despite the general economic downturn. Stern told reporters after the seminar that he was "confident" that amount would be provided, although he warned not all the funding would be flowing by the next UN climate conference in November at the Mexican resort Cancun. "It's our intention to be able to give some accounting of where we are in the funding process -- what has flowed, what has been committed..." he said. "I think we'll be able to do that by the time of Cancun but it's a three-year process so it's not all going to be done by Cancun." Stern did not provide specifics of what the US delegation discussed with China on climate change at this week's talks in Beijing.

by Staff Writers
Singapore (AFP) May 26, 2010
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer defended the company's presence in China on Wednesday, saying it was more helpful in easing censorship than the tougher approach of rival Google.

Ballmer said that while he respected Google's decision not to bow to censorship in China, Microsoft believed it was more productive to engage Beijing in dialogue rather than take on a country's legal system.

Human rights groups and members of the US Congress have accused technology giants including Microsoft and Yahoo! of abetting China's Web censorship machine, dubbed the "Great Firewall of China."

Ballmer, visiting Singapore on an Asian tour, told journalists: "Google made another choice, I respect that they made another choice.

"We think we are trying to help reduce the possibility of censorship by being there. I think our choice will do more to help promote free speech than the choice they've chosen."

He said that in the event of a formal directive by China's government to remove information on its site, Microsoft's policy was to comply, out of consideration for its workers' safety.

"If we get a proper request from the Chinese government, we take the information down, otherwise we put our 2,000 employees in China at risk," said Ballmer. "But we also put up a big notice that says we took something down in China and we leave it outside of China.

"We think we are trying to help reduce the possibility of censorship by being there."

In April, Google stopped censoring results on its Chinese search engine and began redirecting users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong, a move praised by its shareholders despite the danger of a Chinese backlash.

Ballmer said every country had its own regulations governing the Internet and China was no different in this regard.

"The fact of the matter is, cybersecurity is an important issue," said Ballmer.

"It's an important issue to China, to the US, Singapore, everywhere in the world and we work on those issues with the relevant authorities in all countries."

On Microsoft's prospects in the Chinese market, Ballmer said software piracy remained a challenge and was one factor driving the firm to focus more on other Asian countries offering better intellectual-property protection.

"In terms of China in general, it's a long haul," said Ballmer.

"We are trying our best to collaborate with industry, collaborate with Chinese companies, collaborate with the government so that people understand and appreciate the value of proper protection of intellectual property."

Despite China's huge market, only about one percent of Microsoft's revenues come from there, Ballmer said, adding that there were more opportunities in countries such as India and Indonesia in the short term.

An annual report issued this month by the industry group Business Software Alliance showed 79 percent of software installed in personal computers in China last year were pirated copies, among the highest rates in Asia.

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