Google quitting China?

[AZRedhawk44]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100114/D9D7GIP00.html

BEIJING (AP) - In China's first official response to Google's threat to leave the country, the government Thursday said foreign Internet companies are welcome but must obey the law and gave no hint of a possible compromise over Web censorship.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, without mentioning Google by name, said Beijing prohibits e-mail hacking, another issue cited by the company. She was responding to questions about Google at a regular ministry briefing.

"China's Internet is open," Jiang said. "China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law."

Google Inc. said Tuesday it would stop censoring search results in China and might shut down its China-based Google.cn site, citing attempts to break into accounts on its Gmail service used by human rights activists.

Jiang gave no indication whether the government had talked with Google. The state Xinhua News Agency said earlier officials were seeking more information about its announcement.

The main Communist Party newspaper warned companies to obey government controls as Web users visited Google's Beijing offices for a second day to leave flowers and notes expressing support for the company.

Peoples Daily, citing a Cabinet official's comments in November, said companies must help the government keep the Internet safe and fight online pornography and cyber attacks.

Web companies must abide by "propaganda discipline," the official, Wang Chen, was quoted as saying. "Companies have to concretely increase the ability of Internet media to guide public opinion in order to uphold Internet safety."

Also Thursday, a law professor and human rights lawyer, Teng Biao, wrote on his blog that someone broke into his Gmail account and forwarded e-mail to another account. Teng said he did not know whether he was one of two Chinese activists mentioned by Google as hacking targets.

"Google leaving China makes people sad, but accepting censorship to stay in China and abandoning its 'Don't Be Evil' principles is more than just sad," Teng wrote.

Another Beijing human rights lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, says his Gmail account was hacked in November and important materials taken, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group announced. Jiang has represented Tibetan activists and advised people with AIDS who are seeking government help.

Outside the Google offices, some visitors poured small glasses of liquor, a Chinese funeral ritual.

One man left a copy of Peoples Daily, which he said represented the tightly controlled state media that China's public would be left with if Google pulls out and censorship continues.

"Google is the true hero in this silent city," said a note left outside the building in the capital's Haidian technology district. Referring to the government Web filter, popularly known as the "Great Firewall," another note said, "The tallest walls cannot divide people's sentiments. Google: Bye, let's meet on the other side of the wall."

Employees entered and left the building but declined to talk to reporters.

Google's main U.S. site has a Chinese-language section but Beijing's filters make that slow and difficult to access from China.

Beijing promotes Internet use for business and education but operates extensive filters to block access to material deemed subversive or pornographic, including Web sites run by dissidents and human rights groups. Its market of 338 million Internet users is the world's most populous.

A Google departure could give a boost to local rival Baidu Inc., allowing it to pick up Google users and advertisers, analysts said.

Baidu, launched in 2000, is a standout in the global search industry - a local competitor that beats giant Google Inc. Baidu has 60 percent of China's search market and has held onto that despite Google's launch of a local site and relentless efforts to tailor its services to Chinese tastes.

"We view this development as a major positive opportunity for Baidu," Citigroup analysts Catherine Leung and Mark S. Mahaney said in a report.

The Global Times, published by Peoples Daily and known for a fiercely nationalistic tone, took an unusually conciliatory stance Thursday, warning that Google's departure would be a "lose-lose situation" for China.

"Google is taking extreme measures but it is reminding us that we should pay attention to the issue of the free flow of information," the newspaper said. It said China's national influence and competitiveness depend on access to information and added, "We have to advance with the times."

The White House said Wednesday it was briefed by Google on its plans in China but refused to give details. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama made his stance on Internet freedom clear during his trip to China in November, when he told students an open exchange of information makes all countries stronger.

Gibbs said the White House is awaiting China's response to Google's announcement. Asked whether the incident could cause a U.S.-China chill, Giggs said: "We stood in China when we gave the answer about a free Internet. So, the president and this administration have beliefs about the freedom of the Internet."

It appeared unlikely other companies might follow Google's lead and try to change how business is done in China.

"As long as you aren't involved in politics, the media or pornography, the government will leave you alone," said Siva Yam, president of the United States of America-China Chamber of Commerce, which primarily represents U.S. companies in China.

I says:

If you can't mess with politics, the media or pornography, what's the point of the internet? 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Baidu rejoices.

[Monkeyleg]

"China's Internet is open," Jiang said.

Sounds like Baghdad Bob got himself a name change and a new job.

[Standing Wolf]

China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law.

China is to law as AIDS is to health.

[makattak]

Popular Mechanics' take:

China Needs Google more than Google needs China

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4342408.html

The standoff will only get more interesting from here. Currently, it is a case of who needs whom more. It seems unlikely that China will loosen its restrictions for the second most popular search engine in the country. But having Google pull out its business may prove too much of an embarrassment and an acknowledgement of systemic repression, two things the Chinese government would like to avoid. Google could end up losing out on a potentially huge market, but if it doesn't stand up for its IP, the Chinese will most certainly take such steps again in the future.

In fact, the tough part is that even if Google, and, for that matter, other tech companies, pull operations out of China, they will still face hacker thefts of IP from afar—Internet larceny knows no boundaries. But China may be taking the bigger risk here. Part of the reason the U.S. has proved so technologically creative is that we have a free and open information economy—and China has, thus far, benefited from advances born here. If U.S. tech companies are forced to take a defensive stance toward China, that country will find itself isolated from the creativity of the West. And try as they might, it's doubtful that China can completely steal its way to technological creativity. China has done a great job of developing its manufacturing base, but that country still lags when it comes to technological innovation. And I'd argue that China won't develop along those lines until it allows for the free exchange of ideas and the protection of intellectual property. Hacking e-mail and driving the greatest information discovery service ever invented out of your country certainly won't help those goals.

Full article at the link.

[FloridaEllie]

I'm proud of Google!  That country seems to really oppress its people and limit their human rights.  I think all the companies that try to make money there are sell outs.