China partially blocks Google search results from Hong Kong, the saga continues
By Vlad Savov 
posted March 23rd 2010 9:10AM
posted March 23rd 2010 9:10AM
You didn't think that just because Google started redirecting its Google.cn domain to its Hong Kong site, we were coming to a neat compromise to the big brouhaha between the search giant and China, did you? Oh no, brother, this thing is far from over. China has now responded by whipping its state computers into a filtering frenzy, blocking and censoring out content it considers objectionable from Google's HK-based search results. Adding to its show of strength, it's expected the Chinese government's influence will also result in China Mobile canceling a deal to have Google as its default search provider on mobile handsets. We suppose it's Google's turn to respond now. How about offering a friendly game of badminton to settle their differences? [Thanks, Colin]
ROFLCOPTER
Badminton? In china, wouldn't that be ping-pong?
@Motlee
Yeah, I came in here to say just that.
@Motlee No, it's still badminton.
Ping-pong is a synonym for table tennis.
@r3loaded
Or Wiff Waff if you listen to old Boris O_o
@Motlee Didn't you watch The Marriage Ref? I thought all Chinese people love badminton!
@Motlee the point of badminton (not trying to speak for engadget) would be to have a compromise. Tennis (gofl)? Table tennis? Let's meet in the middle.
@Motlee
Wow, don't be an idiot. Badminton and Ping Pong are different sports both of which China is very good at.
I hope google continues to drive these communist pieces of garbage crazy get em google!!
@TsaxmafiaReturns They're commies only in name - the best description for China's government is "authoritarian command capitalists".
My popcorn's ready for this battle in any case :)
@r3loaded A little OT but China is an authoritarian republic with a market economy ruled by a single communism party. In contrast we (US) are a democratic federation with a market economy ruled by multiple directly elected parties. Anyhow this is getting more interesting by the day, I'm under the impression that all but google.cn was blocked in China, so I guess google.com.hk must have been spared so far. What the ultimate compromise will be is probably allow access to the site and search results, but block the links from the results to those various websites.
@hmmwv technically, the US is also a republic in most districts, electing officials to make the laws on their behalf. Best counter-example would be California for statewide ballot measures and local referendums as well.
@hmmwv Just to note US is Federal Republic and an indirect democracy - every elegible voter in the US could vote for candidate A and the electoral college could still elect cadidate B. China has what I like to call a "do whatever but stay the f·ck out of our way" economy.
@r3loaded : better to pick a side through investment than indulge from the sidelines.
@hmmwv : We risk becoming a Democratic Federation, but we stand as a Republic (or Representative Democracy). Also, no major changes since yesterday: google.com/prc/report.html
@Coswyn Investment requires money - something I don't have! :P
China would totally kill Google at badminton. Those nerds at google are probably not very good at sports.
@nsfw dude have you ever seen a badminton game?
@nsfw not if we get big papi and brian urlacher to be google's pair:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfwqSBWDW_A
@nsfw Ya, China will use it's highly trained preteen athletes to beat those Google employees. Then when asked about their ages, the Chinese will tell them that they're 20 something year olds.
man this is epic!!! this is an amazing example of economics and foreign relations and bunches of other things interact and what happens when push comes to shove. it's going to be interesting to see how ideologies clash along with humans, money, relationships, and lots of other things get brought along for the ride.
@balwheeler
Can't wait for the tanks to roll up to the Google building. Will Sergey Brin stand in front of them?
@tracdoor
use https
Good for Google standing their ground! May Brin, Page, and Schmidt have their say!
@XChrisX
i heart google even more. long live google!
@XChrisX Google finally doing something with their money.
I stand with Google.
Amerikah!
I would kind of like to see someone hack their content filtering servers. I'm not saying hacking is right, but think about it.
@cslawren I think if google were banned from China they would devote a little bit of their R&D to a bit of pain in the @$$ for China action.
@cslawren Their was a quote about that, Google saying they wouldn't need to do the work to undermine the Chinese gov to get their search unfiltered.
@tracdoor
Chinese citizens are not consider human at their government point of view anyway. why would they need freedom?
go china!!! Go google!!! Dam I dnt think neather wants a deal unless it favors one mre then the other. This might nt be anywere close to over.
I still admit to not fully understanding this debacle. Trying to find some "unifying theory" of 100% compatibility between our two cultures is (and likely always will be) an apples versus oranges debate doomed to an infinite feedback loop.
I understand Google is simply trying to please their shareholders but perhaps it's time to make a clean break and part ways. I guess that's why I'm not a businessperson; I understand that one "cannot please all the people all the time," as the old saying goes.
@wynstongrey Cultural clash? How dare us question their cultural norms! Ya know, things like blocking descendant information, and imprisoning critics of the government. China has REAL problems with human rights, and it's not just a cultural clash.
@dougdeep The same could be said of any nation if one looks at them under a magnifying glass for long enough. Freedom has always been something of an illusion. It just so happens it's a bit less transparent in China.
Having said that, however, I'm curious about your thoughts on how an Internet search engine is going to change their society for the better? By making them more connected? By informing them about the oppression they already know they're under? Seems a bit redundant.
Google offers a lot of nice services but "magic" is not one of them as yet.
@wynstongrey
You mean an "apple vs windows" debate.
China. Stay losin'.
@tracdoor
I'm pretty sure the Chinese don't care about this because they've been indoctrinated into believing their government is right about everything.
Why should we care?
Okay, so who didn't see this coming? Google needs decide whether they are actually going to leave or not. They're getting a lot of undeserved praise for just waffling around and doing a lot of posturing. Google initially said they would leave, realized that the Chinese government plays hardball, and over the past few months they've been trying to save face by doing these little political maneuvers that ultimately accomplish nothing except give them some good PR. Chinese users still get the censored results, Google still refuses to leave China, they say they want to do whatever possible to leave their sales teams and R&D there, and in the end, they're getting all sorts of praise from Internet users everywhere just for posturing. Ugh.
@Dest I agree. There is definitely a lot of PR posturing going on here. If they were serious about maintaining a pretense in China for purely financial reasons they'd be better served by spinning off a segment of their operations, re-branding, and allowing their Chinese counterparts to run the business according to Chinese law. Google may not have to agree with China's policies but if they want to do business there they need to respect and follow them.
@Dest
I don't see how redirecting google.cn to unfiltered results is posturing. That appears to me to be a very concrete move. As of now Google is no long self censoring its search results in China, it is forcing the Chinese government to block all those inconvenient truths they don't want their people to see.
@wynstongrey
WOW, MLK Jr and Gandhi would be proud!
I believe the term is civil disobedience?
@ECH I believe the point Dest was trying to make involved the fact that we (you, I, and everyone else chatting about this issue) are the true targets of Google's PR posturing. By discussing Google we're providing them with completely free publicity.
To quote Brendan Behan, "There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary."
@wynstongrey Man! Was that ever a Freudian slip on my part! I believe I meant to use the word "presence" rather than "pretense." But I guess in Google's case here it could easily be six of one and half a dozen of the other, no?
@wynstongrey
So Google is purely using this conflict with China over free speech to get positive PR for itself, because that is going to be more profitable for them than maintaining their search business in China? I doubt it.
I think Google got fed up with the "rules" of doing business in China, and that government's increasingly hostile actions against free speech through attacks against Google user's accounts. So how does Google make a point? Don't just close up shop and leave, instead start disobeying those "rules" that are universally unjust and leave it up to the Chinese government to expose themselves as enemies of freedom by enforcing laws against free speech.
I think its more about getting bad PR for China than good PR for Google. And if Google gets a little bounce in public opinion for their actions here, as well they should. They deserve that much for effectively pulling out the the world's largest growing market.
ps... and I it think this is actually "bad publicity" for China...
@ECH
They are maintaining their search business in China. That's the whole point. They didn't leave China. They used a move that they knew the Chinese government could easily go around by filtering the Google search results for them. The end result is the same. Chinese users still get censored searches and Google still profits. They have NOT left like they said they would do. I remember everyone praising Google for "leaving" when they didn't even leave yet, and now people are praising them for offering a token of disobedience that has no effect whatsoever.
Bad PR for China? Everybody knew that the government censored results and that they would do whatever to keep it that way. That was no secret. What Google needed was to distinguish themselves from Baidu and the other search engines in China, and to keep their "Do no evil" reputation on our side of the world- a reputation that they've been slowly losing with their views on privacy and the fact they censor results for other countries.
@ECH
Being a Chinese person who was born and raised in north America and now living in china for business, you are the only person on this blog that knows what they are talking about. Sure using this dam proxy server to be able to watch you tube and the sorts is annoying. but that's not the point.
I think most people here should not comment about things they are so clueless about. Come live here for a couple years and then form your opinions, clearly most of you know nothing other than what YOUR government has led you to believe.
@Dest
Other search provides agree to self censor their results to prevent their sites from being blocked. Google's move to stop this practice has forced the Chinese government to censor or block Google's sites themselves. To me that is more than a token difference.
@ECH I guess we can agree to disagree over that, but the crux of the matter is that Google caved and backed out on what they said they would do so they could still operate in China and profit... just like they have done for the past several years without a peep.
I'm torn,
I don't know that it's Google's place to be "standing up" for the Chinese people in their "fight against oppression".
But then again, it's nice to see a corporation willing to take a financial hit like this for something that it believes in (especially something as altruistic as this appears to be).
But then again, again, what if it wasn't something so altruistic. What if said corporation were fighting for something that didn't ring so much of "freedom of information". Do we want corporations stepping in on social issues and trying to force their will?
I don't know. This is hard.