On Sep 24, 2009, at 11:57 AM, Ole Jacobsen wrote:
Alan,
The most obvious answer to your question is that it is not at all
clear if the government would even reply or if they did, how long
it would take for them to reply, and even then, how much information
you would be able to take away from the reply apart from "don't break
the law".
Do you think any other government of any other country would provide
an answer in a manner and timeframe that would be at all be useful?
When I worked for the US Government, it was drilled into me that we
did not and
could not speak for the US government. Any advice we would give was
just that, and
did not constrain the government in any way whatsoever.
The list of people who can speak authoritatively for the US Government
is limited and (except for the
President) the ways in which they can do so is very constrained. I
would assume that
the situation for the Chinese government is very similar, so unless
one of us has a
friendly relationship with President Hu Jintao we are highly unlikely
to get
anything definitive.
But really, we do not believe that an IETF meeting would be breaking
any laws if we are conducting our normal IETF business.
+1
Marshall
Ole
On Thu, 24 Sep 2009, Alan Clark wrote:
Why not provide a list of the potential problem topics to the
Chinese government (maybe via MIIT or SAC) and say that the IETF
does have open discussions in these areas, hence provided they
accept this then IETF would be delighted to have the opportunity to
meet in Beijing. If China is not willing to allow IETF to have the
same level of open discussion that other countries would - then
reconsider the venue.
IMHO China is an excellent country to visit however IETF should
select meeting locations that allow open discussion within the
normal agenda/ topics
Alan
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