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Brinksmanship Continues In Google-China Row Over Censorship

Posted by timothy on from the should-I-stay-or-should-I-lost-carrier dept.

According to The Financial Times, "Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now '99.9 per cent' certain to go ahead [with the closure] as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking. In a hardening of positions on both sides, the Chinese government also on Friday threw down a direct public challenge to the US search company, with a warning that it was not prepared to compromise on internet censorship to stop Google leaving." "99.9 per cent" or not, both sides say they'd actually like Google to remain in China, but neither is willing to bend publicly on the question of censorship. If Google closes google.cn, as now seems likely, it could still maintain its R&D office in Beijing and its sales force, who sell ads on google.com targeted into China.

6 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Well, that's good to hear by Avin22 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There was a recent slashdot story on this. The common person in China probably will not see too much of a difference with Google gone, since they do have Baidu, but scientists and researchers will since they rely heavily on Google Scholar, which China has yet to reproduce their own version of.

  2. Bad summary, Google isn't pulling out of China by edelbrp · · Score: 1, Informative

    From the article:

    "It’s very important to know we are not pulling out of China"

    At most, it appears they would stop offering search services.

    1. Re:Bad summary, Google isn't pulling out of China by LockeOnLogic · · Score: 2, Informative

      The search services are the part that pertains to censorship. Google isn't severing business ties, they are refusing to facilitate censorship.

  3. Re:Well, that's good to hear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Um...sorry to burst your FUD bubble, but Microsoft has a much better privacy policy than Google, and there is no evidence of Microsoft ever having censored search results at the request of the Chinese government.

  4. Re:Well, that's good to hear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/11/will-you-boycott-bing.ars

  5. Re:Well, that's good to hear by koxkoxkox · · Score: 2, Informative

    In China it is called Biying, which is more like "surely" + "answer"