Google's New Approach to China

When Google launched its search engine four years ago in China, and bowed down to Chinese authorities who required Google to censor their search results, I was hugely disappointed. I had always been a strong proponent of Google's "don't be evil" motto, and even more so, having worked there for a short time, I firmly believed that Google management actually took their motto seriously. But then, after the entry to the Chinese market, my long discussions with friends and colleagues, trying to convince them Google was indeed not evil, became much more difficult and I seemed to lose quite some credibility. The promise that Google would only remain in China if progress was made on the freedom of speech issues seemed like a poor excuse to harness the lucrative business opportunities gained by entering the world's fastest growing internet nation.

Today, all that has changed. Read on to find out why I believe the recent developments are so important to China's future.

This morning I was reading Google's blog on the way to work and could not believe my eyes. After hackers had attacked Google's server in an attempt to gain access to human right activists' email information, Google had come to the conclusion that things were not going as they had hoped. Instead of moving forward, China was moving farther away from Google's ideal of universal free access to information. The reality is indeed very bleak: After Hu Jintao had come to power, many hoped for a relaxation of the censorship laws. Their hopes were soon diminished when more and more internet sites were blocked, and more rights activists jailed than ever. Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook are mostly inaccessible from the mainland nowadays, with IMDB and Wired being the latest to get eclipsed by the great firewall. It almost seems as if the Chinese authorities want us to get used to the regular blocking of websites, until eventually only approved sites remain accessible.

But it seems Google's had enough. The company is planning on removing all censorship from their Chinese search engine, and if that is not permitted, leaving the Chinese market altogether.

Some doubt Google will actually take these measures, while others doubt they will have any effect. Personally, I doubt the Chinese authorities will radically change their stance on censorship due to the business loss of a single foreign company. Nevertheless, I feel this is a hugely important step and believe this could trigger change.

My reasons? Well, soon after I had read the statement on Google's blog, I found the story to be everywhere: on CNN, Tagesschau, and even ChinaDaily. While the latter takes the usual regime-friendly approach (titled: "Chinese govt seeks information on Google intentions"), it does mention the issue of censorship, which is very unusual for the Chinese press:

"Drummond's post said that censorship in China and recent attacks targeting Google's services in China forced the company to make the review."

(However, in a rewritten article, now on their homepage, the sentence about censorship has been replaced by "Google had been blamed by the government for showing too many links to pornographic contents and breaking the law.")

This amount of press coverage is what is important. After the recent sentencing of the Chinese rights activist Liu Xiaobo, the government is in desperate need of some positive press. After all the one thing the Chinese government fears more than any of these issues is to lose credibility among its citizens. This trust was earned by the government's extremely successful modernization of the country, which has brought millions out of poverty. However, all good things come to an end, and as a financial crisis strikes the world, the government has reason to be worried. So they are faced with the dilemma: Open up to freedom of speech and allow dark secrets to be revealed, or seal everything up and face the anger of all Googlers in China. Given that Google's market-share in China is around 20% I think they will go with the latter, and Google will have no choice but to leave.

However, this will leave a lasting impression on the perception of the Chinese government. A Google-less China stands for a tightly controlled and paranoid regime. In the end, it may be just a small step, but I am hopeful more will follow. Maybe some other companies will take Google as an example, and follow in their footsteps. Imagine Microsoft dropping Chinese Windows support until information is freely accessible… Well, a man can dream.

Alright, your turn. Leave your thoughts in the comments!