THE GIANT Internet search engine Google threatened to quit the Chinese market yesterday over censorship issues and cyber attacks on a number of its Google.cn customers, mostly human rights activists.
The announcement sent shockwaves through the Chinese online community, the world’s biggest with 338 million users, with many webizens posting messages of support for the US company, although the Chinese government said it was waiting for more information.
David Drummond, a senior Google official, wrote in a posting on Google’s blog that the company was “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 recognise that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China,” the posting ran.
The Google statement is by far the highest profile act of defiance by a foreign firm in China in the face of Communist Party influence. So far everyone, from carmakers to widget factories to visiting theatre groups, has had to bow to the government’s stringent rules on operating in China.
The web giant said it had evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, and said the decision to review its business operations in China had been “incredibly hard”, with “potentially far-reaching consequences.”
The internet was buzzing with messages from webizens supporting the decision and calling for Google to stay. One Twitter posting showed a picture of a bouquet of flowers at the company’s Beijing headquarters, with a note attached saying: “Google – a real man”.
Google created its China-based Google.cn site in 2006, agreeing to censor results by excluding sites to which access was blocked by the “Great Firewall of China”.
With 31.8 per cent of search revenues last year, Google trails local competitor Baidu, with 60.9 per cent but has been gaining market share. It is the last of the international web giants to still run its own China operations. Yahoo, eBay and others have all quit the market and handed over control of their China operations to local partners.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also weighed in on the issue yesterday with a statement saying Google’s statement raised very serious concerns.
“We look to the Chinese government for an explanation. The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy,” she wrote.
Chinese reporting of the story has focused on the fact that the decision prompted the company’s 700 China staff to fear for their jobs.
The decision to go public on the dispute is extremely rare in China, where criticism in public is not tolerated, and companies tend to be discreet when making comments seen as critical of the government.
Tang Jun, the former CEO of Microsoft China, was quoted in local media as saying: “The decision is not a big deal for Chinese netizens, but this will be the most foolish decision in Google’s history, To give up China means to give up half of the world.”