Chinese Premier Wen Jaibao’s public excoriation of U.S. trade policy was perhaps that country’s most visible confrontation in recent days, but certainly not the only one. The New York Times reported Sunday that China has warned Google’s business partners that they will be responsible for following censorship laws, even for content provided by Google.
All in all, this case promises to provide some interesting observations as to whether other Chinese Web sites will disassociate themselves from the popular search provider, which has been involved in an ongoing dispute with China over censorship of Web hits. In January, Google said it would no longer self-censor its Chinese-site Web searches – a practice mandated by the Chinese government to restrict access to banned sites – because of alleged cyber attacks.
While analysts say Google is almost certain to shut down its Chinese search engine, its partner companies – mostly those that use Google search functionality on their sites – could keep using Google and filter search results on their own until that happens. This may be be unduly complex, however, leading to a breakdown of many such partnerships.
Nonetheless, if the companies continue to use Google’s Chinese-language search function, even in light of its impending shutdown, it would signify the importance of Google to many devoted users in China. While putting pressure on the Chinese government is a remote possibility, this move could indicate that sites may be willing to work around regulations and utilize Google’s U.S. based search engines, or perhaps those in another Asian country.
No matter what the outcome of this latest announcement is, it is still encouraging that Google is willing to extricate itself from a lucrative market that is nonetheless restrictive on Internet openness. While part of this decision may be in its best interest, especially if China has been launching cyber attacks, the burgeoning Asian country is likely a very lucrative market that Google will be foregoing.
Ultimately, Google’s decision underscores the importance of policies that engender a free and open Internet. At the very least, it may inspire some Chinese Web companies to push back against the burdensome policies that are hampering Internet use in their country.
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