US in new push to break China Internet firewall

The United States plans to pump millions of dollars into new technology to break through Internet censorship overseas amid a heightened crackdown on dissent in China, officials have said.

State Department officials said they would give $19 million to efforts to evade Internet controls in China, Iran and other authoritarian states which block online access to politically sensitive material. Michael Posner, the assistant secretary of state in charge of human rights, said funding would support cutting-edge technology that acts as a "slingshot" -- identifying material that countries are censoring and throwing it back at them. "We're responding with new tools. This is a cat-and-mouse game. We're trying to stay one step ahead of the cat," Posner said.