Web giant vs. global superpower

“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn,” said David Drummond, senior vice president and Google's chief legal officer. “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.”

The ultimatum seemed to launch a battle of the titans-the world's most powerful Internet company and the world's rising economic superpower, a real-life, 21st century battle to the death reminiscent of King Kong vs. Godzilla.

Moreover, Google's motto, “Don't be evil,” cast this struggle in a moral light, good vs. bad, the forces of light arrayed against the forces of darkness.

Put in those terms, the outcome is predetermined. To the Chinese Communist Party, censorship is vital to its continued monopoly on power. Hence, Google will have to end its operations in China.

But, theoretically at least, that is not necessarily the case. Actually, more than a week later, Reuters reported that “most of the filters on Google.cn were still in place” although “controls over some searches, including the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, appear to have been loosened.”

Google, it appears, is awaiting the outcome of talks with the Chinese government. But what is there to negotiate? However, the fact that Google is seeking negotiations is revealing.

After all, in the Drummond statement of January 12, Google made it clear that what triggered off the company's threat to quit China was not the censorship that it had been practicing ever since it launched Google.cn four years ago but rather cyber attacks “on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google.”

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email