Chinese walls: China threatens to fracture the internet

Chinese walls: China threatens to fracture the internet
THE internet is supposed to be strong enough to survive a nuclear war, but nothing can protect it from politics. Since its inception, its technical underpinning — the handling of addresses such as .com or .org — has been based on an informal consensus among (mainly American) engineers. Yet as governments have come to appreciate the importance of the internet, those delicate agreements are starting to unravel.
http://economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5582257