China: Google Violated Promise to Filter

(CBS/AP)  China reacted quickly Tuesday to Google Inc.'s decision to stop censoring the Internet for China by shifting its search engine off the mainland, accusing the company of violating promises.

Google said Jan. 12 it would pull out part of its service if it had to keep censoring Internet results. Visitors to Google's old service for China, Google.cn, are now being redirected to the Chinese-language service based in Hong Kong, where Google does not censor searches.

"Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks," the official Xinhua News Agency quoted an official in a statement issued just hours after Google's announcement.

"This is totally wrong. We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts," the unnamed official said.

The government has been surprised at the backlash from its own citizens following its negative reaction to the Jan. 12 announcement, reports CBS News Correspondent Terry McCarthy in Beijing.

"I am a Chinese," blogger Michael Zhao told McCarthy through a translator, "but I'm also a Google man."

Zhao, who says he spends 16 hours a day working online as a journalist, discovered the power of Internet freedom during a year's study in Harvard in 2007.

"Without Google, I cannot live a modern life," Zhao said.

Google may not have been making a lot of money in China; however, with such enormous growth potential, the company really didn't want to leave the country. But with Chinese cyber attacks against U.S. networks increasing so rapidly, Google decided it didn't have a choice, McCarthy reports.

"One thing to learn out of the Google experience is no company, no matter how advanced it is - and Google is one of the most advanced in the world - is safe against this kind of attack," James Lewis, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CBS News.

The Hong Kong page heralded the shift Monday. "Welcome to Google Search in China's new home." The site also began displaying search results in the simplified Chinese characters used in mainland China.

But the results can't all be accessed inside China, because government filters restrict the links that can be clicked by mainland audiences.

The official quoted from the State Council, or Cabinet, said the government talked to Google twice to try to resolve the standoff.

"We made patient and meticulous explanations on the questions Google raised ... telling it we would still welcome its operation and development in China if it was willing to abide by Chinese laws, while it would be its own affair if it was determined to withdraw its service," the official said.

"Foreign companies must abide by Chinese laws and regulations when they operate in China."

It was not clear whether Google notified regulators in advance about the switch to the Hong Kong service. The Chinese government could retaliate by blocking access to Google's services, much as it has completely shut off YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. China has an estimated 350 million Internet users.

Google's Gmail e-mail service remained accessible from within China, as did its news page, though attempts to call up specific articles on China were blocked.

More on Google in China

Google Defies China on Web Censorship
China's State-Run Media Chastise Google
Google Partners in China Get Antsy
Report: Google Taps NSA for Cyber Defense
Google Not Only Target of China Hackers

The withdrawal of its search engine makes Google the latest foreign Internet company to founder in the heavily regulated China market. Companies such as Yahoo, EBay and Microsoft's MSN instant messaging service have never gained the traction in the China market that their homegrown rivals do.

Still the decision is likely to further dismay many younger Internet-literate Chinese, who admired Google's fight against censorship even though they don't like to be reminded of the government's heavy hand. In the days after Google first announced a possible pull-out, some Chinese placed flowers outside Google's Beijing office building.

In anticipation of Google's move, Chinese state media cranked up the criticism of Google in recent days in a coordinated assault apparently aimed at swaying public opinion against the U.S. search engine giant as it debates exiting China.

Recent commentaries carried by both Xinhua and the China Daily newspaper accused Google of harboring a political agenda and said the company should understand that it has to comply with the laws of countries where it does business.

"Business is business. But when it involves political tricks, business will come to an end soon," the China Daily wrote.

Beijing encourages Internet use for education and business but tries to block access to material deemed subversive or pornographic, including Web sites abroad run by human rights and pro-democracy activists. The actions to keep China's citizens from finding politically sensitive information and images online have been dubbed the "Great Firewall."

[Regats]

Google: The new Reagan (without the fiscal irresponsibility)
"Tear down that cyberwall!"

BTW, How's Bing doing in the People's Republic?

[thesevenveils]

Even after its rewrite, Bing can't find links to Microsoft products. Bing is still in diapers.

[saneObserver]

Unfortunately, Wall Street, always the great beacon of moral principals, will probably punish Google. I'm sure Microsoft & Yahoo will be eager to step in.

[hateisafourletterword]

Agreed. I always love the reaction when towns ask Britney or Madonna to cover up when doing shows in the USA cities and they screech about their rights, yet when they do a show in Singapore or China nary a peep is heard when they must tone down the show, wear different (& more) clothing and not perform certain songs.

[lilbear925]

China won't control their own hackers, because that's the way they gain their technology. Google sensed they were being ripped off and pulled out. China won't admit they are thieves and liars with a dismal human rights record, but they can and will accuse everyone else of impacting their country adversely by putting normal security measures in place.

[andre villemaire]

So China, Google Violated Promise to Filter, thats because your
unable to control your hackers, in which kinds of voids the deal.

[samael2014]

"I am a Chinese," blogger Michael Zhao told McCarthy through a translator, "but I'm also a Google man."

I don't get it.

There are plenty of good search engines out there that don't include Google, which is pretty much the BIGGEST PARASITE of search engines, in terms of using the person doing the searches.

It's pretty obvious why Google won't bail out of China. What I don't understand is why China doesn't just get rid of Google entirely. There are probably Chinese web developers who could create a better search engine than Google. With all due respect to 'Google man', if China is so repressive in it's censorship, who gives a **** what 'Google man' wants? And can't Google man do his searches elsewhere? It's just a freaking search engine, how hard is that to develop or find an alternative, if you don't worry about the welfare of a company like Google using people for profit, marketing and/or advertising? I almost never use Google or a search engine that uses Google as a matter of principle, and I find all sorts of things, including not the same advertising things at the front end of the search all the time.

[samael2014]

I don't know what kind of tax arrangement Google has with the government of China, but this is a company that makes profit just by it's presense in a large community of shopper's -- of which China is a gold-mine.

What on earth would make anybody believe Google is nothing more than a corporate parasite looking for people to feed upon, and in no way willing to abandon for principles like censorship.

It's actually amazing, the GUAL of GOOGLE to continue to USE the people of China with no impact to them, by merely diverting their searches to a Hong Kong based Google search engine.

Unless the Chinese government is getting a major boone in taxes or whatever from Google's presense, what exactly is their incentive to put up with this from Google AT ALL? This is a PARASITE relationship Google has with the Chinese people, as they have with all people who can't seem to do without Google searches for some as yet to me unseen reason. Normally you would want to terminate the PARASITE in such a relationship.

[ccdsswrkr08]

Kinda hard to find an alternative when the government has blocked everything. These two posts have got to be from some government people in china. They're not just blocking people from porn, they're blocking people from information. If they don't like the information, then they block it. Don't you see something inherently wrong with someone telling you exactly how you can live your life as an adult?

[eddom949]

I daresay, this is a story of the poorest, saddest people I have ever seen, unable to live the 'modern life without Google,' and of broken promises, and the fiber optic network with the porn advertised by Google using the site 'private.com.'

[tmittelstaed]

Google needed to get out of China, simple as that. Now, what the Internet community needs to do is start blocking the Chinese government-run search engines from indexing their sites. China's government simply does not get it. They think that it's perfectly fine to hoover up and consume information on the Internet but cherry pick the things they want. Sorry, but that's not how it works.

[thesevenveils]

It is hard to abide by laws when they are state secrets. It is hard to abide by laws that vary on the whim of the Aristocratic Chinese Communist Party that says about their poor and hungry: "Let them eat cake."

Free China from its oppressive slave master government.
Free Tibet!

[mgunn89512]

You mean Google didn't know this before going in? Is it a state secret they censor? So what brings this up now? How did blaming hacked email accounts on the government, later shown to be by amateurs, suddenly turn into a censorship issue? Answer: its a diversion for a false accusation. They overreacted and they know it by their half-ass "pull out" yet they get our support due to our general dislike of china.

[SUEZQueen]

RE: Shame? YOU MEAN CHINA'S DAMNED!