Just over two months after threatening to leave China because of censorship and intrusions by Chinese hackers, Google said Monday that it was closing its China-based Internet search service and instead directing Chinese users to a Hong Kong-based uncensored version of its search engine, which may get blocked in mainland China.
In a blog post, Google also said that it would retain much of its existing China operations, including its research and development team and its local sales force. The stunning move represents a powerful slap at Beijing regulators but also a risky ploy in which Google ”” one of the world’s technology powerhouses ”” will essentially turn its back on the world’s largest Internet market, with nearly 400 million Web users and growing quickly.
“Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard,” David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, wrote in the blog post. “We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.”
Good for Google!!!
I wish that we would refuse passage of data originating from a Chinese address through our switches and bridges. That would put an abrupt stop to all the hacking done by the Chinese Communists! The technology is there. Is the will?
On another note, I count this as further evidence that a huge number of the business elites in the United States were and are self deluded about the nature of the Chinese government. They are a communist nation. They have a track record of murdering tens of millions of their own people and brutalizing and enslaving the rest. Why are our business executives surprised by their conduct? Are they really that obtuse?
Reports are that China has now restricted the searches getting through to the Hong Kong site.
Google is my friend, in more ways than one.
[blockquote](Googles risky ploy)…will essentially turn its back on the world’s largest Internet market…[/blockquote]
Markets, markets, markets. Watching corporations’ moral writhing to deal with a totalitarian regime I am reminded of our Lord’s admonition: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”