Beijing, January 14: China will be forced to decide on unfettered web access for 300 million people in a censorship clash that threatens to redraw the boundaries of the internet.
Google, the world’s biggest search company, was in talks with the Chinese Government last night after saying that it would abandon operations in the country unless state authorities left it free to operate without censorship.
Its demand to be allowed to operate its Google.cn search engine free from censorship came after what it described as a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China”.
Further investigation revealed that attempts had been made to access the Google mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. It said that at least 20 other companies were also targeted.
The cyber attacks have strained Chinese-US relations, with Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, demanding an explanation for Google’s allegation. She said the “ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy”.
In public, Chinese authorities largely ignored this display of defiance from Google; resistance against a system where foreign companies have almost invariably accepted intrusive controls to gain access to a huge and growing market.
An official of the State Council Information Office, or cabinet spokesman’s office, said: “It is still hard to say whether Google will quit China or not. Nobody knows.”
Yesterday Google made contact with Chinese officials, and discussions are understood to be continuing. But for a few hours yesterday some Chinese citizens said they had precisely the liberty which the search engine is demanding.
After the company presented its ultimatum, some users claimed that previously-banned photographs were available on the site, including one of a protester holding the image of a man standing in front of a tank during the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Google insisted that it had yet to lift the filters that Chinese law requires it to install.
Google will be counting the potential cost of a move designed to protect, or rather burnish, the reputation built around its motto “Don’t be evil”. Since facing a barrage of criticism when submitting to Chinese censors four years ago, it had seemed to be gaining a stronger foothold in China, one of the few places it is not the dominant search engine.
But on Tuesday night, Google found itself unable to square the virtuous circle — based on free access and freedom of expression — that lies at the heart of the way it likes to run its business. Web users dismayed by the news — carried prominently on websites but ignored by state-run media — made their way to the company’s Beijing offices to leave bouquets. Some bowed before the building. One message read: “Google: a real man.”
One man who left a bouquet said: “I felt it’s a pity and hope it will not withdraw from the Chinese market. Google played a key role in the growth of our generation. The control [of the internet] is excessive.”
Some web users found ways past the Great Firewall of China — the government filter that blocks access to certain internet sites. One Twitter user said: “It’s not Google that’s withdrawing from China, it’s China that’s withdrawing from the world.” Others argued that China could manage fine.
Though it seems unlikely that Google will succeed in changing the minds of the Chinese authorities and may well be resigned to shutting down its Chinese website, the move may not be that costly in pure financial terms.
It would be abandoning $350 million worth of business, but this represents just 2 per cent of its worldwide revenues. Some suggest that Google has little to lose, as it is not making inroads into China.
Figures from the market research firm comScore show that about 70 per cent of searches in China are made through the local search engine Baidu and Google trails in second with about 15 per cent.
—Agencies