Google vs. China — Chinese Government Responds

Google pull out of China by April 10? Nah. March 28, today, Google began redirecting all traffic from google.cn (Google China) to google.com.hk (Google Hong Kong) which allows Chinese language searches without any form of censorship. Chinese citizens have the entire internet available to them as of this afternoon via Google Hong Kong.

David Drummond, Google’s Chief Legal Officer and SVP of Corporate, posted to Google’s official blog this afternoon. The post is entitled, “A new approach to China: an update.” It basically states, in an artfully drafted diplomatic fashion, exactly what I wrote in the first paragraph of this post.

Mike Elgan posted on ITWorld.Com at 4 pm reason why this is a total slap in the face to China. He writes:

It leaves the Chinese government with three options:

1. Block mainland access to Hong Kong, which exacerbates frustration with Hong Kong’s special status and creates resentment on the mainland

2. Shut down the Hong Kong site, which creates resentment among powerful elites in Hong Kong

3. Allow Chinese citizens access to an uncensored Internet

None of these options are acceptable to the Chinese government.

A couple of hours later, China responded to Google’s crafty redirect. Again, Mike Elgan was on the story. The quotes from Chinese officials are as follows:

Google’s move is “totally wrong,” said a government spokesman, described as the “official in charge of the Internet bureau under the State Council Information Office” through the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. Further, he said, “Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks.”

The spokesman said: “This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts.”

This in a year where the Internet is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize! :)

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