China Pushes Censorship Amidst Google Threat
China says it's their way or the highway.
This week, headlines were filled with Google's bold statement that it might pull out of China altogether in response to hacker attacks.
"These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with 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," said Google's Chief Legal Officer David Drummond.
"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," were the telling words from Drummond.
While the threat of the world's most important internet company pulling its operations from within a country is serious, the Chinese officials have yet to even flinch.
According to Bloomberg, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular briefing in Beijing today that Chinese law prohibits hacking and other forms of online attacks.
Jiang Yu said, "The Chinese government administers the Internet according to law and we have explicit stipulations over what content can be spread on the Internet."
While the Chinese spokeswoman did not directly apply that statement to Google, the message appears clear that if Google is unwilling to play by the country's censorship laws, then the internet giant has no place in China.

China has 1.3 billion people. Not 6 billion.
I just want to point out that the US censors also. We decide that child pornography is not ok but adult pornography is. It's a matter of degree what we think is censorship worthy and what is not and there is not necessarily a moral high ground to take.
I'm sure there are people in the states that would like some more control on the media their children are exposed to and that's very close to censorship.
China goes too far in this from our point of view but who is to say where we draw the line is the perfect place?
Looks like there is actually a good chance google will abandon china ...
Of course then china will just release it's own search engine that censors every website that doesn't praise the republic.
Looks like there is actually a good chance google will abandon china ...
Of course then china will just release it's own search engine that censors every website that doesn't praise the republic.
O RLY?
I'm sure the Chinese gov't spends $$$ on training hackers for the Chinese Cyber Army.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/opinion/lweb13microsoft.html
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/11/will-you-boycott-bing.ars
I just want to point out that the US censors also. We decide that child pornography is not ok but adult pornography is. It's a matter of degree what we think is censorship worthy and what is not and there is not necessarily a moral high ground to take.
I'm sure there are people in the states that would like some more control on the media their children are exposed to and that's very close to censorship.
China goes too far in this from our point of view but who is to say where we draw the line is the perfect place?
If u look better at Google they are nothing more than a spy machine since they scan all the internet sites that's nothing more than spying.
Did you just say Fascist? This is how ignorant you are about China, so you shouldn't even be talking.
China has 1.3 billion people. Not 6 billion.
You obviously know nothing about search engine technology.
Buying high-priced items doesn't make someone better than someone else. If ignorance makes you rich, I'd rather be poor.
setooI just want to point out that the US censors also. We decide that child pornography is not ok but adult pornography is.
The US is far less censored than other countries (point in case, the article above). Sure, you can't get child porn...but really? Come on. It's child porn for god sakes...that ruins kids' lives - whereas a politically-aligned or intellectual website doesn't. At least US citizens can get get access to whatever political or technical content they want.
When you have companies like Micro$oft eager to enter the Chinese market, and willing to censor, and Baidu already there complying to the governments every wish, Google has made the best decision.
Why Google suddenly cares about privacy?
Wait, Google can invade other people's privacy, steal and sell for $$$ but Google cries when others invade Google.
...that doesn't even make sense? I've no idea what you're trying to say. You didn't prove/provide proof of what you said. I'm not inclined to believe it. I think you're confusing 'spying' with web crawling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawling