In China, Google Declares War on Censorship

After years of restrictions, criticism, and business setbacks, Google may be giving up on the world's largest Internet market

By Bruce Einhorn

Isaac Mao saw this coming. In early 2007, just a year after Google launched a China-based search engine that followed Beijing's strict censorship rules, the prominent Chinese blogger posted an open letter to Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, imploring them not to cooperate with the country's Internet cops. "Dear Larry and Sergey," began Mao, who described the frustration he and other Chinese Google fans felt as a company with the informal motto "Don't Be Evil" obeyed policies forbidding access to sites deemed taboo by the government. Google's self-censorship "hurts those loyal users a lot," wrote Mao, who said it was "high time to change [Google policy] back to the right track."

Three years later, the 37-year-old Chinese blogger seems finally to be getting his wish. On Jan. 12, Google announced it will stop censoring search results on its Chinese site, Google.cn, in response to what the company calls "highly sophisticated" hacking of its Web site from China and the infiltration of Gmail accounts of human-rights activists in China and other countries (Google.cn is hosted inside China; English-speaking Chinese can read Google.com, but Chinese authorities can block access through the firewall.) "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," David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, wrote on the company's official blog.

Mao is relieved that Google has finally reversed course. "It's a smart move," he says. Google "compromised a lot but could not satisfy the government." Indeed, despite Google's censorship, the company suffered years of on-and-off criticism and harassment from the government and others in China. YouTube, Google's video-sharing service, is regularly blocked, for instance, and censors have sometimes restricted access to Google's search engine. Just three days before the stunning announcement, the company issued an apology to the China Writers Assn. for scanning their books without authorization. Google does however still believe its digitization efforts comply with Chinese copyright law.

U.S. Web companies lagged in China

Now Google, which has just 35.6% of the search market and trails far behind market leader Baidu (BIDU), seems to be giving up. Although the company has left the door open for a solution, Beijing is unlikely to change its policies to accommodate the U.S. search giant. The aggressively worded statement from Drummond is a sign that "Google has declared an information war on China," says David Wolf, CEO of Beijing-based advisory firm Wolf Group Asia. By ending censorship of its Chinese site, Google is violating terms of conduct for doing business in China. "Google appears to be more interested in winning hearts and minds than in sustaining its business in China," Wolf says.

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