“Google said traffic to its mainland Chinese search site google.cn is being redirected to google.com.hk, following unsuccessful talks with Beijing about operating an uncensored search engine in the country,” Oreskovic reports. “The move comes amid heightened tensions between China and the United States over a range issues from Internet freedom to the yuan exchange rate, from economic sanctions on Iran to U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.”
“Google said that it intends to continue research and development work in China and maintain a sales presence there, though the size of the salesforce will be partly dependent on the ability of mainland Chinese users to access google.com.hk,” Oreskovic reports. “A former British colony, Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and enjoys more freedom, including an uncensored Internet, than mainland China.”
Full article here.
Google vs China. Clash of the Titans?
Hong Kong isn’t “offshore” any more than Guantanamo Bay is offshore of Cuba. Hong Kong now has a nebulous and tenuous relationship since England’s 99-year lease expired. If China gets pissed enough, they can just send in a squad of about a dozen soldiers to Google’s server building and take their rifle butts to everything inside.
China, by the way, is the only member of the U.N. security council that prevents the U.N. from imposing super-strict sanctions on Iran over their nuclear program; they know that if Iran launches one of their missiles with a nuclear bomb fitted into the “owie end” of the thing, it won’t be landing on them, so they don’t give a holy crap. Like the song goes: Money money money… MOOONEY.
Hong Kong is a Chinese colony. How are they exempt from Chinese law?
@KeepHopeAlive
It is semi-automomous. Which means they can self-govern to a large extent. As a practical matter, that means “go make gobs of money like imperialist capitalists but don’t piss us off.”
This is dangerous because it dares China to crack down on freedom in Hong Kong. Google could easily have provided the same service through a US-based site.
@ Original Jake
Dangerous? Maybe a little. China can easily cut direct links to HK. However, having the HK servers working allows mainland Chinese users to access HK indirectly by going through other countries. So mainland routers and filters would have to get smart at catching queries that are ultimately served from HK.
Its the sort of stuff that results in cat & mouse technology games. Though—as I wrote above—China could send in a squad of soldiers across the invisible border to smash Google’s hardware, they wouldn’t be willing, in my opinion, to suffer the humiliation of looking like the goons they really are.
I will only sell my products in the USA if they get rid of guns, abortions and provide decent healthcare for all citizens.
</sarcasm>
Who does Google, a foreigner, think they are to dictate terms to another country! China was as likely to bow to them as the US is likely to stop buying Chinese goods. Or as likely as the healthcare bill being passed…
I work with Iranians, in the oil industry – NITC.
I think they’re very nice people from what I have experienced. Their hospitality when I stayed with them in Sharjah was supreme.
But what do I know, I mean I just work with these guys…
@ HolyMackerel
Dear apologist for China (a tough job, indeed):
What part of these two fundamental rights of all human beings do you disagree with(?):
1) Leaders shall govern with the consent of the governed.
2) All people of good conscience should be able to peacably converse with each other about whatever subject they chose without leaders, trying to cover up their misdeeds, throwing people in jail for discussing those misdeeds.
If I had been Google, I wouldn’t have stayed in China one damned day after they were caught infiltrating computers at Google and 20 companies, trolling for the e-mail addresses of human rights activists so they could throw even more of them in jail.
@ Jamie,
I’m sure the citizens of North Korea are nice people too. It’s their leader you don’t want to accidentally slight if you know what’s good for you.
“Hong Kong is a Chinese colony. How are they exempt from Chinese law?”
Chinese Colony? Ha… what? It’s a British Colony that was handed back to China.
During British Rule they instilled religion (bleh..) a legal system and a great educational system.
Take a look at number 2 again. They actually have a legal system in Hong Kong. They have the Triads too, but having a legal system based on precedent, as opposed to waiting for a semi-corrupt Chinese government to write the laws, is a very big deal.
Remember, the Chinese government, more than Ballmer, wants to “fscking kill Google”… by copying their algorithms by way of Baidu hackers… at least in HK Google has protection.
The free speech stuff is mostly baloney. Chinese who want to read about Tiananmen Square use Proxies. Its very common here.
@Greg L
humans have no ‘rights’, that is an artificial construct, just like the call for the ‘right’ for fast broadband reflects the stupiddity of our greed as the rich in society.
We have responsibilities and are blessed if we have peace in our time. Who says that either statement you offer must be true? I am glad I live in a time when they are, but this privilege could be taken away at any time and our talk of ‘rights’ will again be only thin air.
Google is a for-profit company who is arrogant to impose their view of free speech on any people, even one who mistreats their own countrymen.
My sarcastic comment was designed to show the pointlessness of Google’s stand since all countries mistreat their own countrymen.
“I work with Iranians, in the oil industry – NITC.
I think they’re very nice people from what I have experienced. Their hospitality when I stayed with them in Sharjah was supreme.
But what do I know, I mean I just work with these guys…”
Um, very little.
So they treated you well because you were doing business with them? Who cares. What’s your point?
Drawing some kind of conclusions from … of all places the wealthiest 1% in the world, and somehow trying to make a comment about the other 99% of that country that lives in squalor is a bit simplistic, no? The oil guys? The guys who basically make billions doing nothing?
Yea, I’d hope that, at the very least, they were nice to their business partners. As they return to their mansions. And you return to… MDN.
“@KeepHopeAlive
It is semi-automomous. Which means they can self-govern to a large extent. As a practical matter, that means “go make gobs of money like imperialist capitalists but don’t piss us off.””
Uh, self-govern? Now it is, yes, but the clock is ticking. By 2040 it will all be China.
“This is dangerous because it dares China to crack down on freedom in Hong Kong. Google could easily have provided the same service through a US-based site.”
If you knew anything about the internet in China, you’d know that websites with Servers outside the Country are piped in very slowly.
Chinese can look at Google.com NOW if they wanted to. But they wont. Cuz its damn slow.
Why do you think Google.cn exists in the first place??
Anyway, telling the Chinese to go to a slow search site, that has English as the default langauge, is moronic.
Baidu.com loads in half a second.
@ HolyMackerel
Well, you have your wild ideas and it is your right to express them. <wink>
Your novel notions that humans have no “rights” is at odds with every tenet of modern societies and the constitutions that govern societies, such as the Magna Carta, which lead to modern constitutional law in most modern, civilized societies.
I suggest you read up on the Magna Carta; the principles outlined in it, such as how “Leaders shall govern only with the consent of the governed” and “free speech” are what allowed you to come here and spout your pure nonsense about how humans “have no rights.”
In fact, I don’t even think you believe your tripe; I think you are just a troll trying to be provocative to get some attention. Perhaps if you took a can of spray paint and engaged in graffiti, you might also get some attention that way. At least your work product (your graffiti icon) would be a truth in some fashion.