Google stopped censoring search engine results in China in a move that drew anger from Beijing and leaves the Web giant facing an uncertain future in the world’s biggest online market.
Google announced in a blog post that it had shifted mainland Chinese users of its Chinese-language search engine Google.cn to an uncensored site in the former British colony of Hong Kong.
“Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong,” Google chief legal officer David Drummond said.
While ending censorship in China, the Mountain View, California-based Google said it planned to keep sales, research and development teams in the country of some 384 million Internet users. Chronology: Google’s operations in China
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A banner is left on a sidewalk to wish Google well in Hong Kong ( China ) in January 2010. |
Google’s decision came a little more than two months after the Internet titan threatened to close its Chinese operations because of censorship and cyberattacks it said originated from China.
China reacted quickly to Google’s move saying it was “totally wrong” for it to stop censorship and to blame Beijing for the cyberattacks that Google said targeted email accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Related article: Google ‘thinks out of box’, say activists
“Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service,” said the official in charge of the Internet bureau of the State Council Information Office.
“We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conduct,” the Chinese official said.
The White House said it was “disappointed” Google could not reach a deal with Beijing and reiterated that US President Barack Obama is “committed to Internet freedom and… opposed to censorship.”
“The US-China relationship is mature enough to sustain differences,” added National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer.
Drummond, Google’s top lawyer, said “figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard.
“We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services.”
Google co-founder Sergey Brin told The New York Times that shifting the Chinese service to Hong Kong was not given a clear-cut stamp of approval by Beijing but “there was a sense that Hong Kong was the right step.”
“There’s a lot of lack of clarity,” he said. “Our hope is that the newly begun Hong Kong service will continue to be available in mainland China.”
“The story’s not over yet,” Brin added.
Drummond said “the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.”
He said providing uncensored search from Hong Kong is “entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China.” Related article: Google China says ‘business as usual’
Beijing tightly controls online content in a vast system dubbed the “Great Firewall of China,” removing information it deems harmful such as pornography and violent content, but also politically sensitive material.
Google launched Google.cn in January 2006 after agreeing to censor websites for content banned under Chinese law. Google.cn is the second-largest search engine in China after Chinese search engine Baidu.com.
Google’s decision to end censorship in China was welcomed by human rights and technology groups and members of the US Congress.
“It is a remarkable, and welcomed, action and an important boost of encouragement for millions of Chinese human rights activists and political and religious dissidents,” said US Representative Christopher Smith, a Republican from New Jersey.
Arvind Ganesan, business and human rights director at Human Rights Watch, called it “an important step to challenge the Chinese government’s use of censorship to maintain its control over its citizens.”
“The onus is now on other major technology companies to take a firm stand against censorship,” Ganesan said.
Sharon Hom, executive director of New York-based Human Rights in China, said Google was throwing the ball in the court of Beijing, which promised to respect freedoms in Hong Kong when it regained the territory in 1997.
“They are technically staying in China but stopping censorship,” she said.
“Google has taken a courageous position against censorship,” said Lucie Morillon of Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders.
Leading Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, who spent nearly two decades in prison and now lives in the United States, said he knew China “would not back down.”
“But we also knew that Google’s motto was ‘Don’t be evil.’ So there was no point on which to compromise,” Wei said.
Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy & Technology, praised what she called Google’s “continued effort to enable China’s people with unfiltered access to robust sources of information from all over the world.”
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In Uncategorized on March 24, 2010 at 5:14 am
The dust works its way through keyholes and window frames, and smells like a filthy brew of dirt, smoke and metallic particles. The sky turns magenta and whole buildings disappear. Eyes tear up and throats get sore from coughing.
Northern China’s spring sandstorms blew in with particular ferocity over the weekend, bringing misery to people working outdoors Monday in Beijing and across a wide swath of the country.
“It gets in your throat, under your clothes, in your bed,” said Beijing street sweeper Xue Yuan. “I hate it, but there’s really nothing you can do.”
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Tourists wearing face masks stand amid a sandstorm on Tiananmen Square in Beijing March 20, 2010. |
The storms are a product of worsening desertification in Inner Mongolia and other Gobi Desert regions hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the north and west of Beijing caused by overgrazing, deforestation, drought and urban sprawl. Strong winds pick up the loose dust and dirt, mixing them with industrial pollution.
Beijing’s air quality index was set at Level 4, one grade better than the most serious Level 5 that was reached Saturday as the mixture of sand, dust and pollution blasted the capital. City meteorologists said conditions would improve, but warned the sand would linger through midweek.
Record pollution levels were registered in Hong Kong, 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) to the south, partly because of the storms. Schools were advised to cancel outdoor activities and at least 20 elderly people sought medical assistance for shortness of breath, Hong Kong’s radio RTHK reported.
Across the 100 mile-(160-kilometer)-wide Taiwan Strait, island residents covered their mouths to avoid breathing in the grit that can cause chest discomfort and respiratory problems even in healthy people. Sand covered cars in just 10 minutes and some flights were canceled because of poor visibility caused by the sandstorm.
Beijing residents hunkered indoors as the fine dust worked its way into homes and offices, cutting visibility to about 3,000 feet (1,000 meters).
Outside, people scurried along sand-strewn sidewalks, covering their faces with gauzy handkerchiefs or donning surgical masks. There were no immediate reports of illnesses connected to the dust.
In a warning posted Monday on its Web site, China’s Central Meteorological Station urged Beijing’s 22 million people to close doors and windows and safeguard sensitive electronic and mechanical equipment.
China Central Television told viewers to clean out their noses with salt water and remove grit from ears with cotton swabs dipped in alcohol.
In the past decade, Beijing has sought to counter the effects of desertification by planting grass and billions of trees to hold back the desert, mostly to no avail. Along with bringing pollution, the storms underscore a looming water crisis in the north that the government is seeking to head off with a massive project to pump water from the south.
Li Dongping, a tourist visiting Tiananmen Square from southern China, said more needs to be done to boost environmental protection and public awareness.
“We need to improve our environment, we should plant more trees and improve the soil infrastructure, and also we should raise our sense of environmental protection,” Li said.
The latest sandstorm was expected to sweep into South Korea on Tuesday, said Kim Seung-bum of the Korea Meteorological Administration. The sandstorm that raked across China over the weekend caused the worst “yellow dust” haze in South Korea since 2005, and authorities issued a rare nationwide dust advisory.
Grit from Chinese sandstorms has been found to travel as far as the western United States.
State television’s noon newscast showed the tourist city of Hangzhou on the east coast of China, where graceful bridges and waterside pagodas were hidden in a mix of sand and haze.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing warned that particulate matter in the air made conditions “hazardous,” although high winds dispersed some of the pollution and the air quality was later upgraded to “very unhealthy.”
Duan Li, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Meteorological Station, said conditions in the city seemed more severe because a sandstorm Saturday deposited grit on rooftops, sidewalks and trees. The winds Monday carried in even more sand and stirred up what was already there.
The last massive sandstorm to hit Beijing was in 2006, when winds dumped about 300,000 tons of sand on the capital. |
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