China: Google Should Obey Rules When Leaving
With the news that Google is nearly 100 percent sure about its decision to leave the Chinese search market, China has said the search company will still have to abide by Chinese law, even if it does leave.
Last week, referring to Google's plans to uncensor search results, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong, told reporters, "If you don't respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and the consequences will be on you." Then, on Sunday, a report citing people familiar with the situation said Google's plans to leave China were 99.9 percent certain.
Today, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said Google should follow the rules, even if it does decide to pull out of China. "On entering the Chinese market in 2007, it clearly stated that it would respect Chinese law," Reuters quotes spokesman, Yao Jian, as saying. "We hope that whether Google Inc continues operating in China or makes other choices, it will respect Chinese legal regulations," Yao continued. "Even if it pulls out, it should handle things according to the rules and appropriately handle remaining issues," he said.
Yao went on to say that the rules he was referring to included reporting Commerce Ministry about plans to pull out. Google said yesterday it has not concluded its talks with the Chinese authorities but said it was adamant about not censoring its results.
Read Reuter's full report here.

Just curious.
So should Google have known about the censorship issues before entering China? In this case Google shouldn't have even started to be involved with China if it didn't like the rules.
Just curious.
A fine? Good luck with that if they aren't there anymore.
Shut the business down? They already left.
All that's left is sending the triads to whack them...
...oh, hang on, that's actually feasible, Google should comply...
Block all access to google.com. That would kill all of their ad revenues, and China is a big market. Google is messing with the bull and is about to get the horns.
It may take all of China's lawyers to define and put a price on free thought in order to sue Google.
Can't we get all our plastic junk made in another developing country?
Because hackers from China stole their source code. It's not like they are going after hackers in China hardcore.
Their state-sponsored hacking into the Fortune 500 is beyond reproach. They claim "we know nothing", but they have the lid clamped down so tight in that country that a byte doesn't leave without them knowing. You see, they know what dissidents inside their own country say and do all the time... but not their hackers?