When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others.
Sunday 14 March 2010
China Warns Google Again After C.E.O.’s Remarks
One of China’s top Internet regulators warned bluntly on Friday that any move by Google to stop censoring its Chinese search engine would be “irresponsible” and would draw a response from the Beijing government.
One of China’s top Internet regulators warned bluntly on Friday that any move by Google to stop censoring its Chinese search engine would be “irresponsible” and would draw a response from the Beijing government.
The statement by Li Yizhong, China’s minister of industry and information technology, followed a statement on Wednesday by Google’s chief executive officer, Eric Schmidt, that “something will happen soon” in the two-month standoff over Internet censorship between his firm and the Chinese government.
But it was no more clear on Friday what that something might be than it was two months ago, when Google executives first threatened to pull out of China unless the government stopped forcing it to censor the results of users’ Internet searches.
Chinese journalists gathered outside Google’s Beijing offices on Friday said they had heard the company was planning to close its doors here. But a Google spokeswoman denied that in a Thursday article in the government-run English-language newspaper, China Daily.
Google’s China businesses “are still at normal,” and rumors that the company had ordered its Chinese advertising agencies to cease work were not true, the spokeswoman, Marsha Wang, told the newspaper. At Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., another spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, declined to comment on the statements from Mr. Li or any other aspect of its dispute with China.
A company spokesperson said on Wednesday that Google expected the dispute to be settled “in weeks, not months.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress, China’s quasilegislative session, Mr. Li said that he hoped for an amicable resolution to the standoff. But he gave no indication that the government would ease the censorship rules that are at the heart of Google’s ultimatum.
“I hope Google will abide by Chinese laws and regulations,” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Li as saying. But “if you want to do something that disobeys Chinese law and regulations, you are unfriendly, you are irresponsible and you will have to bear the consequences.”
Whether the company chooses to remain in China, he added, is up to Google.
Since it opened shop in China four years ago, Google has captured roughly 30 percent of the search market in the world’s largest assemblage of Internet users, and it is a favorite among the better-educated and wealthier classes that advertisers covet. But the company has long been uncomfortable with Chinese demands that it censor search results to prevent users from viewing some kinds of content, notably political statements that the government deems unacceptable.
Google’s Chinese Web site does censor some of its content, but its restrictions are generally less onerous than elsewhere, and the censored items are clearly identified as having been banned by the authorities.
People briefed on the situation said that Google is still trying to decide how to proceed. The company said on Jan. 12 that it was no longer willing to cooperate with Chinese censors. That said, it was not clear whether Google would unilaterally stop censoring results on Google.cn, its-China based search engine, in open defiance of China warnings, shut down Google.cn and try to reach Chinese customers through its United States-based search engine instead or find other options.
Google issued its threat to leave China after concluding that a sophisticated hacker attack on its computers and some 20 other American targets had originated in China. The company has not directly accused the Chinese government of sponsoring the attack, but it did note that the hackers’ targets included the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. China’s human rights community is the frequent object of government surveillance and oppression.
China has denied any role in the Google attacks and has said it would punish the hackers if they are found. American experts since have said that the attacks had been traced to computers at a prominent Chinese technical university and a vocational school with close ties to the Chinese military.
Since Google first disclosed the hacking incident, executives there have said that the company would like to keep its engineering, sales and other businesses in China, even if it cannot reach a resolution over Google.cn. And Google executives have privately said that they are not likely to take any actions that could compromise the safety of their employees in China.
The Chinese have sometimes cast Google’s complaints as part of an American effort to establish global hegemony over the information on the Internet. Officials here reacted brusquely after the secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a February speech, chided the Chinese government for restricting free speech online.
More recently, however, the government appears to have sought to play down differences, saying that the Google dispute was not a threat to relations with Washington. Nor is China making any effort to prevent Chinese firms from adopting other Google products, such as its Android operating system for cellphones and other mobile devices.
Little is known about efforts by Google and Chinese officials to resolve the dispute, and Chinese reports on the talks have sometimes contradicted each other. Mr. Li, of the Information Technology Ministry, told Reuters last week that the government was working with Google to resolve matters, but his vice minister, Miao Wei, later told the state-run Xinhua news agency that Google had yet to turn over a report on the hacker attacks to the ministry.
Negotiations may be complicated by the fact that Internet regulation is split among a bevy of Chinese government departments.
On Friday, Mr. Li said only that “Google has made its case both privately and publicly.”
Miguel Helft contributed reporting from San Francisco.
2 comments:
China Warns Google Again After C.E.O.’s Remarks
By MICHAEL WINES
12 March 2010
One of China’s top Internet regulators warned bluntly on Friday that any move by Google to stop censoring its Chinese search engine would be “irresponsible” and would draw a response from the Beijing government.
The statement by Li Yizhong, China’s minister of industry and information technology, followed a statement on Wednesday by Google’s chief executive officer, Eric Schmidt, that “something will happen soon” in the two-month standoff over Internet censorship between his firm and the Chinese government.
But it was no more clear on Friday what that something might be than it was two months ago, when Google executives first threatened to pull out of China unless the government stopped forcing it to censor the results of users’ Internet searches.
Chinese journalists gathered outside Google’s Beijing offices on Friday said they had heard the company was planning to close its doors here. But a Google spokeswoman denied that in a Thursday article in the government-run English-language newspaper, China Daily.
Google’s China businesses “are still at normal,” and rumors that the company had ordered its Chinese advertising agencies to cease work were not true, the spokeswoman, Marsha Wang, told the newspaper. At Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., another spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, declined to comment on the statements from Mr. Li or any other aspect of its dispute with China.
A company spokesperson said on Wednesday that Google expected the dispute to be settled “in weeks, not months.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress, China’s quasilegislative session, Mr. Li said that he hoped for an amicable resolution to the standoff. But he gave no indication that the government would ease the censorship rules that are at the heart of Google’s ultimatum.
“I hope Google will abide by Chinese laws and regulations,” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Li as saying. But “if you want to do something that disobeys Chinese law and regulations, you are unfriendly, you are irresponsible and you will have to bear the consequences.”
Whether the company chooses to remain in China, he added, is up to Google.
Since it opened shop in China four years ago, Google has captured roughly 30 percent of the search market in the world’s largest assemblage of Internet users, and it is a favorite among the better-educated and wealthier classes that advertisers covet. But the company has long been uncomfortable with Chinese demands that it censor search results to prevent users from viewing some kinds of content, notably political statements that the government deems unacceptable.
Google’s Chinese Web site does censor some of its content, but its restrictions are generally less onerous than elsewhere, and the censored items are clearly identified as having been banned by the authorities.
People briefed on the situation said that Google is still trying to decide how to proceed. The company said on Jan. 12 that it was no longer willing to cooperate with Chinese censors. That said, it was not clear whether Google would unilaterally stop censoring results on Google.cn, its-China based search engine, in open defiance of China warnings, shut down Google.cn and try to reach Chinese customers through its United States-based search engine instead or find other options.
Google issued its threat to leave China after concluding that a sophisticated hacker attack on its computers and some 20 other American targets had originated in China. The company has not directly accused the Chinese government of sponsoring the attack, but it did note that the hackers’ targets included the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. China’s human rights community is the frequent object of government surveillance and oppression.
China has denied any role in the Google attacks and has said it would punish the hackers if they are found. American experts since have said that the attacks had been traced to computers at a prominent Chinese technical university and a vocational school with close ties to the Chinese military.
Since Google first disclosed the hacking incident, executives there have said that the company would like to keep its engineering, sales and other businesses in China, even if it cannot reach a resolution over Google.cn. And Google executives have privately said that they are not likely to take any actions that could compromise the safety of their employees in China.
The Chinese have sometimes cast Google’s complaints as part of an American effort to establish global hegemony over the information on the Internet. Officials here reacted brusquely after the secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a February speech, chided the Chinese government for restricting free speech online.
More recently, however, the government appears to have sought to play down differences, saying that the Google dispute was not a threat to relations with Washington. Nor is China making any effort to prevent Chinese firms from adopting other Google products, such as its Android operating system for cellphones and other mobile devices.
Little is known about efforts by Google and Chinese officials to resolve the dispute, and Chinese reports on the talks have sometimes contradicted each other. Mr. Li, of the Information Technology Ministry, told Reuters last week that the government was working with Google to resolve matters, but his vice minister, Miao Wei, later told the state-run Xinhua news agency that Google had yet to turn over a report on the hacker attacks to the ministry.
Negotiations may be complicated by the fact that Internet regulation is split among a bevy of Chinese government departments.
On Friday, Mr. Li said only that “Google has made its case both privately and publicly.”
Miguel Helft contributed reporting from San Francisco.
Post a Comment