Story behind Google's dispute with Chinese government
Peter Terpstra
Story behind Google's dispute with Chinese government
By Boxun
Jan 12, 2010 - 11:45:11 PM
Goolge shocks the world by stating: "We have decided we are no longer
willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next
few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on
which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at
all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and
potentially our offices in China."
Boxun reporter immediately contacted one official from Propaganda
Department. The official says that Google is more likely to leave China
sooner or later. It will be hard for Google to accept China's new
requirement: China wants Google to provide searching result prioritized by
the government, not by the "engine". In another word, Google.cn is expected
to show internet users Xinhua News, People's Daily on the top. This is well
beyond "sanitizes" search results.
Boxun learned that Baidu.com has already started to prioritize searching
results by following the government's order.
Google's statement should be applauded. In the past years, how many American
companies have kneeled down for getting business in China. People still
remember that three journalists received heavy sentence after Yahoo provided
their Yahoo mail's information to the authority. Yahoo Group also deleted
Boxun��s email list without explanation a few days before June 4th in 2002
(http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2002/05/200205290135.shtml )
We also should mention that Skype is forcing users in China to use a Tom
version skype, it looks the same as the one in the USA, but it does
censorship.
Google stands up on its own, there are probably more that can be done in the
USA by government, media, and all people. Most of these companies are public
company listed in NASDAQ (USA), even Baidu may have over 51% owned by
American investors. Should Baidu, Sina do what ever they want to do in
China? Not only censorship, but they may providing user's information that
lead many arrests in China.
Boxun's report in Chinese:
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/01/201001131208.shtml
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Amnesty International Report 2009 on China:
http://report2009.amnesty.org/en/regions/asia-pacific/china