Google in China?

By: Oliver Hammond

Their troubles started in 2006 when Google launched its Google China (Google.cn) website.  China required by law that Google censored its search results (such as searches regarding the Tiananmen Square incident), and Google was forced to comply despite the fact that they are strongly against all forms of censorship.  They reasoned that the benefits of having an increased access to information and a more open internet would compensate for having to censor some of their site.

Although Google was not overly happy with the situation they were forced into, they were able to provide users of China with their service while still complying with the laws of the Chinese government.  However, things took a turn for the worse in Mid-December when Google detected a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” that had originated from China, which ended in the theft of intellectual property.

Major US corporations are attacked very frequently, and this was originally thought to be another run of the mill attack.  Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the main target of the attack was to steal information of Chinese human rights activists’ Gmail accounts. Furthermore, it was learned that some Chinese government officials had privileged access to the code used to attack Google.

On March 22^nd, 2010 Google decided that they would no longer continue censoring search results in China, and has now made their Google.cn website redirect to their Google Hong Kong website (Google.com.hk).  This solution allows them to provide uncensored search results while still abiding Chinese law.  Google has stated that it will still maintain a Chinese R&D and sales department, although its relationship with the Chinese government remains strained.