by Paul Rogers
Wow. Now this is what I call a big story.
Someone very important at Google is very angry with the Chinese government.
Over the past 48hrs in all but outright accusation, Google has declared that the Chinese authorities masterminded a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” on its corporate infrastructure. Apparently the attack, which “resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google”, was replicated on at least twenty other major companies in Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical industries.
As a result, Google is reviewing its position in China and refusing to continue to self-censor its Chinese search content, directly flouting previous agreements with the Government. Here’s an exerpt from Google’s own blogpost on the subject:
“These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered, combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web, have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are 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 recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”
I doubt this is an empty threat – Google’s revenues from China are marginal anyway and the company’s hardly strapped for cash, so why not take them on?
Props to Google then for taking a stand. This seems like a victory for free speech and in the short term, I’m sure it is. But there’s a bigger implication to consider. If Google does shut down and withdraw from China, then they’ll leave quite a hole behind. And the promise of access to an expanding market of more than 338m web browsers (more than the entire US population) is such a whopping great carrot, you can’t help but wonder whether Google’s successor might find they are “continually distracted” away from the whole issue of government censorship. Put another way, as an expat friend of mine succinctly notes amid a typically lively discussion on his PekingDuck blog, “Whoever it is, they’ll have to sell out. Business as usual.”
Earlier today Reuters looked under the political hood of a few other major internet players in China and made a few calls on the chances of them rallying behind Google on this issue. It sure is lonely at the top. Let’s hope Google toughs it out.
