Google awakes to the China reality
Quite frankly, it’s about time.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google in China might be approaching their tolerance threshold. Or are they developing a conscience? Either way, the search engine giant is seriously considering pulling the plug after (entirely predictably) “highly sophisticated and targeted attacks on our corporate infrastructure originating from China.” These espionage activities by Google’s Chinese hosts were aimed specifically at so-called ‘enemies of the state’ in China; anywhere else they’re considered decent citizens looking out for the rights of others. Here’s a bit more from the WSJ article:
Google Inc. said it may back out of China after an investigation found the company had been hit with major cyber attacks it believes originated from the country — a move that would amount to one of the highest-profile rebukes yet of China by a major U.S. firm.
Google said it believed the attackers were trying to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human-rights activists. It said at least 20 other large companies were also targeted and that it was in the process of notifying those companies and working with U.S. authorities.
“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results” on its China Web site, Google.cn,” the company’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, said in the post.
“We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China,” Mr. Drummond wrote.
Even the public suggestion that it is considering such a move is likely to infuriate Chinese authorities, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The government in the past has rejected accusations that China is responsible for cyber attacks against foreign entities.
Previous flashpoints
Google launched its Chinese-language search engine in 2006, agreeing to censor some of its results, a move that sparked sharp criticism from human-rights groups and Web-industry officials who are critical of any restrictions on the Internet.
In 2009 when Chinese officials reprimanded Google and accused it of having pornography on its sites, several Google services were temporarily inaccessible in China.
Google’s video-sharing site, YouTube, has also been inaccessible within China for the past number of months, and has been periodically banned in the past.
Last year, [Google] agreed to remove some foreign-language links on its China homepage to placate Chinese officials.
And from Google themselves (hat tip to Richard @ TPD, where a discussion is underway):
We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
Notice a pattern? Google are, bit by bit, badgered to kowtow to this, apologise for that, or otherwise restrict their services. If they continue it will ultimately resemble the CCP’s very own search engine model; one that restricts freedom of information and allows Beijing free access to the accounts of foreign companies, NGOs, and rights activists.
Looks like this security breach could be the straw that breaks the back of Google’s questionable and unethical yielding to Beijing’s draconian censorship measures.
Let’s hope so. In which case, come June, I might not have to revisit this criticism.
Update
James Fallows well worth a read, as ever.
Update 2
January 13th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
[...] now you’ve probably all heard that Google is planning to walk away from China. While that story — and it is a fascinating one — plays itself out, [...]
January 13th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
It’s not a good move.
Google needs to remain in China to hold a portion of the market. If they leave, then domestic companies take over and Google loses a huge amount of profit. China’s continuous use of discriminatory tactics against foreign companies should not be tolerated and must be met with unyielding resistance.
January 13th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Daesong – thanks for commenting.
I’m not so sure Google has much of a future in China if their product is continually marginalised – not to mention illegal access – so blatantly in favour of Baidu (as you point out).
Taking a stand is probably a no-lose move for Google at this stage in the game. Their stance is nevertheless laudible, and may be the shape of things to come.
January 15th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Dear WSJ deleted my comment.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704842604574642200270478442.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
There were 30 comments(for several days), but now 29.
So I donot care about google. But I bet google will be google before.
You seem to have a lot free time, but have no original articles.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
I promise not to delete your comment, he he, although I’m not sure what point you are trying to make.
January 16th, 2010 at 6:08 am
What I think will happen is that both the Chinese government and Google will make some small and insignificant compromises and everyone is happy.
What I hope that will happen is that both the Chinese government and Google will not budge and compromise their respective position at all.
Even though I am rooting for Google to do the right thing, I have to say Rebecca MacKinnon’s piece is so nutty. Google is not here to befriend the Chinese people. Google is here to make money. They are not here to do the Chinese people a favor. MacKinnon’s failure to realize that shows that she is totally hallucinating.
For the most part Fallows was right on the money except for two things: (1) China might have become more assertive in the past couple of years but fundamentally China has not changed much at all, good or bad. It is really the failure of the west to cope with this reality that it can’t do much about it that bothers Fallows and people like him. Get used to it folks. (2) Who is Fallows kidding that the US has exited the Bush/Cheney era? Obama is not fundamentally different from all other US presidents that preceded him. US foreign policy has not changed under Obama. Like all the others Obama is primarily seeking to maintain US primacy in the world on all fronts. Who is Fallows kidding?
January 16th, 2010 at 8:26 am
I fail to see what is nutty about Rebecca’s piece. Yes, she cheers for Google… so what? A large part of the world does, for their (Google’s) perceived saying “no” to diktat. Does that mean that all these people are starry-eyed and naive? Not at all.
It is more like many people are constitutionally unable to accept that big biz and ethics can sometimes coincide in real world. They can, and they do, but do not take that on faith, and do not confuse it with philanthropy. Look at Google, and what do you see?
Here is a multi-billion company. Its core business is not search, but selling advertising. To do so, it must reach as many people as it can. This is done via their web search service. More people using it = more exposure = more sales.
No, I do not doubt personal integrity of actual people involved. I just want to point out that for Google to succeed in what they do they need not only the technology to deliver ads to the right people at the right place, but also impeccable reputation, call it a customer trust. Their know-how and integrity are their most valuable assets. Maybe the only assets. And protecting those is no favour to anyone, Chinese or not, except themselves.
I could go on, but I think anyone not actually under the influence of funny mushroom can understand already.
Oh, and about J. Fallows: He is spot on. End of. And go read his latest, “Unified field theory: Google, China, Haiti”
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2010/01/unified_field_theory_google_ch.php
Bwahahahaha…
January 16th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Neddy,
I am rooting for Google too. MacKinnon’s piece is nutty exactly because what you have outlined above: the whole thing is a business decision (as the GFW greatly hampers on Google’s potential in China), it is not about human rights or so-called “do no evil” integrity. MacKinnon made it sound like Google is Chinese people’s true friend is ridiculous. Nevertheless, despite its not-so-noble intention (certainly not as noble as MacKinnon painted it to be) , at the end of the day Google is going a great service to the Chinese people by challenging the stupid censorship. Perhaps this will be the first crack.
Fallows’ latest piece sheds no new light on what most people (well, at least the better informed ones) already know: that China still has a long way to go. What struck me as pretty silly is the explicit satisfaction and overt schadenfreude expressed by many western commentators like Fallows that “we are still better than them”. Come on, I thought only the Chinese were the insecure folks. The west, dominating the world for centuries since the dawn of modernity, is so afraid of a non-western, non-Judeo-Christian, almost an alien civilization and a big mammoth like China (Russia is Judeo-Christian and essentially part of the western civilization while India, with its Indo-European culture and its long British colonial rule is much less alien to the western eyes) breaking the glass. Much of the so-called “Rising China” is hype created out of fear by the west, a kick it thinks it needs in its butt to get its act together so that western primacy will last a bit longer. Not that I am saying China rising is completely bogus, but everyone who has been to China knows the silly talk of G-2, China the superpower, 21th century the Chinese century etc is just BS. The Chinese themselves know this very well (except some nutty ultranationalists). So for the west to create and play up the China hype, painting China as this menacing giant dragon who is set out to destroy everything on its way, getting so worried and worked up and then to realize “oh, they are nothing compared to us” is really, really retarded.
What I would like to ask Fallows is that what he meant by “the Chinese leadership’s apparent new sense of triumphalism”. What triumphalism? China is simply getting more confident on its own ability to look out for its own interests. Again it is not China that has changed, it is the west who is failing to cope with the fact that the days when they can just issue orders and expect compliance from China are gone. And it is not just China. More non-western countries are heading in the same direction. You just have to get used to it. But you do have the comfort knowing that you are still leaps and bounds ahead of the pack. So why so anxious, my dear western friends? Despite the fact that your lead has shortened a great deal, your overall primacy will still last for a long time to come.
January 16th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Neddy – Fallows is just about my favourite China columnist. He’s a lot more measured and knowledgeable than I am on these issues. He really is very fair in his analysis, I believe. Haven’t read his ‘unified theory’ yet, though.
Juche –
“What I hope that will happen is that both the Chinese government and Google will not budge …”
I’m sure Google are not expecting them to, and are fully prepared to be shown the door. If the CCP let them stay it will have to involve some relaxation of censorship; and the Chinese government wouldn’t do this unless Google’s presence in China is of some value to them. This brings us neatly to the issue of cyber espionage, which is the bigger picture in this story.
Google’s sytems and workplaces are clearly compromised and while the boys in Beijing would be quite happy to keep things that way, cyber attacks are not really good for business (yes, it is a little about that).
“MacKinnon made it sound like Google is Chinese people’s true friend is ridiculous. ”
I think there is a lot of integrity about the way Google does business, including the fair and considerate treatment of its staff around the world. In this respect Google is indeed a friend of China. And you correctly point out that Google is doing people a service by challenging censorship. So what kind of friend are the CCP to the Chinese people?
“But you do have the comfort knowing that you are still leaps and bounds ahead of the pack.”
Not so. Way behind in some respects, Juche:
http://shar.es/aRZ44
Besides, China loves to keep her secrets and downplay the extent of its advances – it’s fundamental to their zero-sum strategy.
January 16th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
stuart,
Cyber espionage? I am sure China does it. Even my favorite DPRK does it. Which country doesn’t do it? That article you post is so damn silly that is not even worth of a rebuttal. Don’e tell me the godly Americans don’t have a cyber army ready to wrech havoc in countries in China in the event of say a war. China invests in this kind of warfare because it knows that in conventional warfare it lags behind the US by probably 20 years. What’s wrong with finding an edge to beat you? You can bomb me to dusts, why can’t I cyber attack your infrasture? At least cyber warfare is much more humane than conventional warfare. If China and the US were to go to war, more Chinese will die and the godly Americans won’t give a damn.
On certain things the CCP is Chinese people’s friend, on many other things it is not. Google is nobody’s friend as it is interested in making money. Of course there is nothing wrong with that.
January 17th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Here you go, courtesy of ESWN:
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/201001b.brief.htm#012
Obvious, really.
January 17th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Great, thanks for that, stuart! Also, someone here at my end (in the Oz) tried to access Douban via ESWN link, and reckons that the post has already been harmonised. I don’t read Chinese myself; can only say there was a notice there, not an article…
January 17th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
That’s right – “this post can only be viewed by its author”.
http://www.douban.com/note/57037189/
January 18th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
@stuart
“I think there is a lot of integrity about the way Google does business, including the fair and considerate treatment of its staff around the world. In this respect Google is indeed a friend of China. And you correctly point out that Google is doing people a service by challenging censorship. ”
Could you confirm that google does not cooperate with CIA and FBI in its spying of any country and individual? if you know that is.
January 18th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
While we are waiting for stuart to respond, we could all do worse than read this article by Rebecca MacKinnon:
“Google, China, and the future of freedom on the global Internet”
http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2010/01/google-china-and-the-future-of-freedom-on-the-global-internet.html
Yes, by the very person referred to as being “nutty” (#6, above) because her take does not fit the “life, universe and everything according to Juche” story.
The piece is longish, but relevant to what we are trying to debate here.
January 18th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
“Could you confirm that google does not cooperate with CIA and FBI in its spying of any country and individual? if you know that is.”
I do not know, MAC. Therefore, I cannot confirm.
January 18th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
@ Neddy
I read that over coffee this morning. Very good by Mackinnon as usual.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:10 am
“Could you confirm that google does not cooperate with CIA and FBI in its spying of any country and individual? ”
As far as I know, many countries(if not all) , have tools to monitor(or eavesdrop) on any communication traffic either legally or illegally within legal framework of each country. If google cooperates with US government or some governments and not others then google is fair game in the world of espionage and spying to those governments with whom google does not cooperate. No amount of moral posturing is going to change that.