Google.cn now rerouting to Hong Kong domain, an 'entirely legal' workaround to censorship woes
By Ross Miller 
posted March 22nd 2010 4:06PM
posted March 22nd 2010 4:06PM
Update: China has given its own response, in English, saying that Google has "violated its written promise." An official for the State Council Information Office goes on to say, " 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." More details via Xinhuanet.
Update 2: The White House has chimed in. "We are disappointed that Google and the Chinese government were unable to reach an agreement that would allow Google to continue operating its search services in China on its Google.cn website," said National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer. More via Yahoo! News.
Update 3: The New York Times sat down, briefly, with Google co-founder Sergey Brin for a few elaborations on today's events. For starters, Brin noted that the new policy was entirely Google's idea, and the US government was not involved in any way. He also silenced whispers that Google would be releasing software for bypassing censorship. "I think those tools are going to come of their own accord. I don't think we have to do anything," he said.
They're also redirecting google.com to google.com.hk, but NOT any ssl requests so https://google.com still works.
/from the inside
today in stock news
Google -$2.50
baidu +$10
1. Funny google has no problem censoring in Australia or turning records over to American government.
2. How come there pull out coincides with google's promise to settle thier copyright violations with Chinese Authors? Google illegally scanning Chinese lierary works.
3. Hong kong is still China, I thought they weregonna pull out.
Go google, your doing wonders for my baidu stocks :) notice how the google supporters don't put there money where there mouth is!
@Xing Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region- like Taiwan, Singapore, and Macau. They're self-governed so they do what they want, but the PRC government could intervene.
@Xing Also, to the book scanning, if I remember correctly- the problem was that the ancient writings had never been added to any formal book catalog (like ISBN) and therefore they belonged to an estate. Google took it as public domain- the estate owners took it otherwise, but there's no copyright on them.
/not arguing one way or another- but it's more complicated than illegally scanning copyrighted books.
@SophT
Taiwan & Singapore are sovereign nations at this time. Hong Kong & Macau are special economic zones but are governed ultimately by china. They both were returned to China in 99 - a good deal of there officials are appointed by Beijing. Regarding the copyright issues not all those books are that old, but even the older ones are still owned by the estates of the authors - again google has to respect the copyright laws of the host country.
@Xing Sorry buddies, this is all wrong.
1. Singapore is a sovereign national, no debate (anymore). Taiwan considers itself the sovereign Republic of China, and is considered by the People's Republic of China to be rogue province.
2. Hong Kong and Macau are Special Administrative Regions, which means they have autonomy in all affairs excepts for foreign affairs and defense. That they are separate societies, for the most part - its own economic, administrative and judicial systems. There is are no conflicts between the policies and laws of these SARs and Google, so there is no reason for Google to pull out of these areas.
The handover occurred in 1997 for Hong Kong, 1999 for Macau.I take issue with "a great deal with officials are still appointed by Beijing" - in practice, yes the Chief Executive is appointed by Beijing, but no other officers. The Secretary of Finance, the Chief Justice and so on are still decided upon locally. Furthermore, in Hong Kong half the legislative council is elected by universal suffrage locally. Therefore, while Beijing is powerful force in local politics, no doubt, in theory they should not interfere and in practice there's a lot of things they cannot do. Furthermore, on the whole people in Hong Kong are skeptical of Beijing, see the June 2003 protests, democracy movement etc...
A Special Economic Zone grants much less autonomy than a Special Administrative Region which relaxes certain economic rules to facilitate foreign investment. It is a far cry from a SAR - most notably, these areas, such as the Shenzhen SEZ, are still subject to censorship, the official presence of the Communist Party, Chinese courts etc...
@YpoCaramel
Just to expand further since i live out here
Singapore is NOT part of China and never has been
SIngapore is at least 1,300 miles away from the closest piece of china
Countries between China and Singapore include:
Vietnam
Laos
Cambodia
Thailand
Malaysia
Singapore has lots of ethnicaly chinese people living in it but it is not china and never has been
Who is hitting who with the ban hammer?
@commentbug
Most courts don't consider agreeing with a law to be a prerequisite for obeying it. Like it or not, they're a sovereign nation, with their own sets of laws governing behavior in their territory. Anyone who chooses to go over there, either to live or do business, agrees when they enter the country that their right to do so is a courtesy extended only so long as they obey the rules. We don't get to bend the rules just because we think our way is morally superior, or our nuclear arsenal is bigger than theirs.
Google made the right call here, staying true to the company's maxim: "Do No Evil". They told the Chinese government what it would take for them to stay in the country, and when it became obvious that wasn't going to happen they pulled out, and found a legal way to maintain a presence in China. Hong Kong has no problem with them operating the way they wish to. Then, they stopped. They made it clear that they weren't going to provide software to tunnel through the great firewall, which would be illegal, and that if they got blocked they weren't going to do anything more.
The people of China have the same capacity for free will as everyone else. And should they choose to apply that free will towards securing a more progressive form of government, that's their right. But Google's just a corporation. They've done all they can here.
Looks like the fight between Google and the Chinese government isn't going to be settled any time soon -- wouldn't be entirely surprised if it took months, as I doubt that Google will ever fully pull out of China, and it doesn't seem as if China is ready to loosen the ropes & let Google have their terms.
Phantom552 - http://www.phantom-gaming.info
" An official for the State Council Information Office goes on to say, " 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."
uhhhh and you weren't censoring a commercial entity for political reasons? Pot, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Kettle.
If Google really had any guts, they would stop accepting all advertising from mainland Chinese companies, hawking their cheap, dangerous, and knock-off garbage in the US market.