Google breaks with Chinese State

8 posts / 0 new
Login or register to post comments
Last post
#1
Top
RedHughs
Offline
Joined: 25-11-06
Jan 13 2010 18:51
Google breaks with Chinese State

As many already know, the Google corporation has very publicly broken with the Chinese state, essentially accusing it of espionage against it.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

Google china has already stopped censoring images of China:

http://images.google.cn/images?hl=zh-CN&source=hp&q=tianamen%20square&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

So what's behind this? Nothing in particular? China too nasty for Google to expect any profits? The start of an aggressive US anti-China campaign? Google looking for a distraction from other failings?

And any implications

Also
In China:

#2
Top
RedHughs
Offline
Joined: 25-11-06
Jan 13 2010 19:10

Jeeze, I didn't read the thread I got the search from correctly.

The google China link is 'tianamen', the event spelled wrong. According the thread, for Tienanmen spelled right and the Chinese term of the incident are both censored.

#3
Top
petey
Offline
Joined: 13-10-05
Jan 13 2010 19:10

the fact that google was stung in the press much more than it expected for sucking up to beijing and thought that the benefit from repudiating beijing's terms outweighed the possible loss in profits from the chinese market?

#4
Top
RedHughs
Offline
Joined: 25-11-06
Jan 13 2010 19:32

It's hard to know what profits Google could or couldn't expect from China.

One thing that's interesting to note is that some have claimed the Chinese stimulus package is resulting in a re-statification of the Chinese economy; getting a contract for a state infrastructure project would depend primarily on connections and only secondarily on the enterprise's ability. This sets in motion a trend for Chinese companies with connections to control every profitable market niche within China. If Chinese companies are also able to use espionage against their competitors, so much the better.

A link describing the hacking:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?newsid=28293

#5
Top
Babirusa
Offline
Joined: 23-09-09
Jan 18 2010 18:52

This story is really interesting, and the claims that Google have made are obviously very serious.
What amazes me is that, so far I have not been made aware of any response from the Chinese side of things. I could be wrong, and if anyone has any links to a site containing an official response that has been translated into English, then I would really like to read it.
Silence is rarely a sign of innocence.

#6
Top
Red Marriott's picture
Red Marriott
Offline
Joined: 7-05-06
Jan 19 2010 00:46
Quote:
Google has around a third of the Chinese search market, lagging far behind the domestic firm Baidu. Kaiser Kuo, a Beijing-based expert on the internet, said: "There are two schools of thought on this. One says that this is a mere smokescreen of sanctimony meant to hide a retreat from a market Google was unable to conquer for business reasons ... The other is that this is a true act of moral bravery."http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/14/china-google-hacking-response-dissidents
#7
Top
waslax's picture
waslax
Offline
Joined: 6-12-07
Jan 19 2010 09:14
Babirusa wrote:
... if anyone has any links to a site containing an official response that has been translated into English, then I would really like to read it.

There's not a lot in it, but there is this from the Wall Street Journal's blog.

It refers to statements made in the China Daily newspaper, which is an official mouthpiece of the Chinese state. You could go to their website and enter "google" into their search engine, which apparently is still powered by Google!

(Reply to #5)