Google to Resume Talks With China–Not That China Is Listening
With the Chinese New Year holiday over, Google is resuming talks with Beijing about the future of its operations in China. People briefed on the matter tell The Wall Street Journal that Google’s state policy head, Ross LaJeunesse, formerly deputy chief of staff to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has been charged with convincing Chinese officials that the company should be allowed to operate an unfiltered search engine in the country in violation of its laws.
A thankless task given that China’s unwavering stance on Internet censorship was reiterated today by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang. “Google’s statement from January 12 is groundless, and we are firmly opposed to it,” Qin told reporters. “China administers its Internet according to law, and this position will not change.”
As I said, a thankless task. Increasingly, it seems that Google (GOOG) is going to make good on its more-than-a-month-old threat to shut down operations in China rather than continue to filter search results in the country. Unless the company has reconsidered. As I wrote last week:
China is the world’s largest Internet market. But in order to operate in China, foreign businesses must abide by laws restricting Internet content, and Google has said publicly that it will no longer do so….“We are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn…”
If that’s truly the case…why are censored results still appearing on Google.cn? Is the moral high ground the company claimed a month ago proving just a bit too high?
PREVIOUSLY:
- Chinese Schools Tied to Attacks on Google? Where’d You Read That, Mad Magazine?
- World War WAN: Google Hack Traced to Schools in China
- Nearly a Month After Debut, Google’s “New” Approach to China Still a Lot Like the Old One
- Google CEO: Ask Not What Google Can Do for China–Ask What China Can Do for Google
- China on “Google Farce”: Our Internet Is Open
- China to Google: No Worries, We Were Planning to Clone Those Android Phones Anyway
- U.S. State Department to Complain to China About Google Hack. Not That China’s Going to Listen.
- Microsoft: “Don’t Be Evil” Is Google’s Motto, Not Ours
- What’s the Chinese Word for Bing? Google Threatens to Leave China.
