The short answer: Because we're equally bad if not worse when it comes to policing the web. I would argue 'worse', because we're hypocrites. At least the Chinese make no bones about being an authoritarian state. We on the other hand like to use fancy phrases like "freedom of speech & expression" and "civil liberties" but happily go and notify the 2008 amendments to the Information Technology Act (on October 27th 2009) without any sort of real public debate.

The particularly damning addition to the original IT Act 2000:

69 (1) Where the central Government or a State Government or any of its officer specially authorised by the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, in this behalf may, if is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient to do in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defense of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above or for investigation of any offence, it may, subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct any agency of the appropriate Government to intercept, monitor or decrypt or cause to be intercepted or monitored or decrypted any information transmitted received or stored through any computer resource.

FYI: from Article 21 of the Constitution:

“No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”

So while the Chinese had to try hard to hack into Gmail accounts of human rights activists, any Indian official can practically walk up to Google and order the company to hand private data over. No court order or magistrate nod needed - and even something as vague as "friendly relations with foreign states" can be reason enough. Rediff.com founder Ajit Balakrishnan has gone on the record in the past about requests for snooping on email. He got away earlier because a written request from the Home Secy of the state was needed. He won't with the new law ...

It's not a very well kept secret that Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and even board member Ram Shriram avoided visiting India for a couple of years for fear of being detained because of a criminal case against them pertaining to content on blogspot.com, where Google was refusing to divulge information. A similar case against them last year was stayed but only after Google India resorted to some fairly creative arguments. International sites have started putting India on the list of "safe search" countries but the move has had little impact.

The amended IT Act is just the culmination of a decade of 'sarkari' fumbling in cyberspace. Here's a quick jog down memory lane of the best of this century:

2001: The tragi-comic case of India's 'first cyber crime' that was 'cracked' by the Mumbai cops. The lunacy of it all is best summed up in this Wired story. (A recounting of my personal experiences while covering the story is here.)

2002: Delhi Police arrests noted Kashmiri journalist Iftikar Gilani on charges of spying after finding "sensitive information" on his computer. The case falls apart after it is confirmed that the documents recovered from his computer were freely available on the Internet. They later book him for obscenity based on porn-spam mails in his inbox.

2003: Yahoo Groups gets blacked out in India because of one North-east e-group with mild separatist propoganda. BBC report here. I had a Jt. Secy in the Dept. of IT openly telling me on camera, that "If it's anti-national, we will ban it!"

2004: Baazee (now eBay India) CEO gets arrested by the same cops whom he offered to fully co-operate with, in a case of pornographic content being uploaded on the site. He later told me how they tricked him into coming to the police station on a Friday so that they could jail him over the weekend without a hearing till Monday.

2005: President APJ Abdul Kalam (followed by others including the National Security Adviser) wags a finger at Google Earth. While some claim it's a legit concern, I think that anyone seriously interested in planning an attack is not going to sit and look at 3-5 year old maps that are being sourced from freely available satellite imagery.

2006: The Government goes into overdrive on internet censorship and knocks off most of the blogosphere in the process of targeting 17 (at first random looking, but clearly politically motivated) sites and blogs.

2007: Cops pick up the wrong guy and keep him in custody for 50 days. Apparently the ISP (Airtel) mapped an incorrect physical address to the IP address that was posting anti-Shivaji content.

2008: The government suddenly decides that Blackberry services are illegal nearly 3 years after they've debuted in the country and a handful of operators are offering the service. The issue magically disappears after "meetings" with RIM representatives.

2009: While the Chinese are hacking away at our vital IT, the government decides that banning the Savita Bhabi comic strip is far more important, in the process giving it much wider publicity and readership than it ever had.