Google vs China

By Richard Catto

This month Google announced via its official blog that it would no longer be co-operating with China over the issue of filtering search engine results on Google.cn (which is the localised Chinese version of Google’s search engine). If this was not acceptable to the Chinese government, Google would close its Chinese offices and cease offering its services to China.

This has now become the biggest showdown in recent history between two superpowers. Google is the number-one brand worldwide. It is the first foreign company to stand up publicly to China’s policy of censorship and lack of human rights and call time-out.

Google has said that its policy of constructive engagement with China, which began in January 2006, when it decided to co-operate with Chinese authorities by filtering search engine results, has failed and that from now on, business will either be conducted on its terms or not at all.

The consensus by many commenters is that this approach is very likely to fail, and will result in Google ceasing its business operations in China. Google’s search engine has captured slightly over 30% of the search engine market in China, trailing behind a local search engine (Baidu), which has more than 60% market share.

The announcement by Google has sent shockwaves through the Chinese internet community and has been greeted with mixed emotions. Many Chinese internet users have laid flowers outside Google’s head office in Beijing as a show of affection and respect. Chinese authorities have yet to respond publicly to Google’s announcement. They have approached Google for more information.

What precipitated this shock announcement is that Google detected (in mid-December 2009) a cyber attack launched at it and more 30 other large firms. The attack sought to steal intellectual property and hack Gmail accounts belonging to Chinese human-rights activists all over the world. Google also confirmed that many such accounts had already been comprised using phishing tactics to trick users into loading malware, which gave third parties control over their accounts. Google has since said it has shored up security holes exploited by the cyber attack, however, Gmail users with computers comprised by malware could still be at risk.

Google’s allegations against China are being treated seriously at the highest level of the United States government. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton released the following statement:

“We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions. 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. I will be giving an address next week on the centrality of internet freedom in the 21st century and we will have further comment on this matter as the facts become clear.”

Individuals and companies all over the world are scrambling to interpret Google’s move and predict how this will play out. Google has long been a champion of internet rights and its corporate moral standpoint is “Do no Evil”. In 2006, when Google first agreed to censor itself in order to gain entry into China, it was subject to much criticism for compromising its moral standpoint. But of late Google has been showing less tolerance for government efforts to limit online freedom. In South Korea, a year ago, when a law was passed requiring internet users to use their real names and website owners to verify this information, Google disabled parts of its Korean YouTube site, incurring the wrath of the South Korean government.

One theory, espoused by Tom Foremski of ZDNet, is that Google is sending a message to the governments of the world that the internet is beyond national laws, that users who engage online cannot have their freedoms constrained any more. If that is the case, Google has my support.

Richard Catto is the 42-year-old editor of the Cape Town news mailing list which he started in 2004. He enjoys reading and writing about internet technology news.