Chinese Internet censorship is intensifying but unsustainable, said Michael Posner, assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights, and labor during a Feb. 18 State Department webcast. The Chinese are betting on an Internet focused on commerce and not dedicated to free and open discussion, an effort that will likely fail, said Posner.

Only days before, U.S. efforts to engage Chinese citizens in discussions about Internet freedom on Feb. 16--a day after an address on the subject by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--were blocked by the country's censorship system, according to a Wall Street Journal article. 

Jon Huntsman, U.S. ambassador to China posted information about Clinton's speech through Tencent Weibo, one of two popular microblogging services not blocked in China. But, shortly after Chinese Internet users began reposting Huntsman's messages, government censors demanded the sites remove the posts, reports the WSJ.

In a statement, Huntsman said he was "disappointed" and noted that "it is ironic that the Chinese are blocking an online discussion about Internet freedom."

On Feb. 17, Chinese microblog Sina Weibo blocked searches for the Chinese words for "Hillary Clinton" and "Hillary", according to PCWorld. Terms such as "Tiananmen Square" have long been blocked in China, but the Chinese words for "Egypt" and "Mubarak" joined the list as protests in Egypt intensified. 

Despite the recent rhetoric from the State Department, Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the United States itself has room for improvement. 

"We are a beacon and we are not there yet," she said during the webcast. "We need to take some actions here to raise the bar, even when we're talking about these challenges, or we will find ourselves, I think, not in a position where we can go to the rest of the world and tell them that we have the answers."

Turning the conversation to domestic policies, Harris added that the economic and human rights impact of the Internet shutdown in Egypt is a "sobering example" of why an Internet "kill switch" would be damaging.

On Feb. 17, Sen. Lieberman (I-Conn.) reintroduced a much-discussed cybersecurity bill with a notable tweak from last year's version: The Cybersecurity Freedom Act of 2011 now explicitly prohibits the president from shutting down the Internet. What's more, Lieberman said in a statement that it is "impossible to turn off the Internet in this country." 

The bill also allows businesses considered critical infrastructure to appeal additional regulations imposed by the Homeland Security Department in a federal court.

"The so-called 'Internet kill switch' debate has eclipsed discussion of actual, substantive provisions in this bill that would significantly improve the security of all Americans," said Lieberman.

For more:
- see the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee press release
- watch the State Department webcast

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