The Bikrampur Times

China condemns decision by Google to lift censorship

China has said Google's move to stop censoring search results is "totally wrong" and accused it of breaking a promise made when it launched in China.

The US giant is redirecting users in mainland China to its unrestricted Hong Kong site, although Chinese firewalls mean results still come back censored.

Beijing said the decision should not affect ties with Washington.

Google threatened to leave the Chinese market completely this year after cyber attacks were traced back to China. Google's move effectively to shut its mainland Chinese search service, google.cn, is a major blow to China's international image, the BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from Beijing.

It means one of the world's most prominent corporations is saying it is no longer willing to co-operate in China's censorship of the internet, our correspondent says.

But business analysts say the company is taking a long-term gamble as the Chinese internet search market is growing by 40% a year.

China recently moved to further limit free speech on the web, and Google's own websites and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists have come under cyber attack.

The White House said it was "disappointed" that Google and China had not been able to resolve their differences.

'Politicisation'

A BBC search of google.cn on Tuesday using the word "Tiananmen" brought up results but the words "Dalai Lama" returned messages like "problem loading page" and "the connection was reset".

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters that Google's move was an isolated act by a commercial company and should not affect China-US ties "unless politicised" by others.

The government would handle the Google case "according to the law", he added.

Earlier an official in the Chinese government office which oversees the internet said: "Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks.

"This is totally wrong. We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicisation of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts," the unnamed official was quoted as saying by Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Chen Yafei, a Chinese information technology specialist, told Reuters that Google should have accepted Chinese regulation if it wanted to operate in the country.

"Any company entering China should abide by Chinese laws," he said. "Chinese internet users will have no regrets if Google withdraws." Edward Yu, chief executive of Analysys International, a Beijing-based research firm specialising in technology issues, said he did not believe Google's rerouting was sustainable.

"The thing that makes the government unhappy is this kind of gesture," he said. "They may set up barriers against Google." Young Chinese professionals working in Beijing's main IT hub, Zhongguancun, expressed a mixture of regret, anger and surprise on Tuesday at Google's decision.

Valued market

In Beijing, some passers-by laid flowers outside Google's offices to thank the company for standing up for its principles. International human rights groups praised Google's move , with the New York-based Human Rights in China saying Google had put the ball in Beijing's court - China promised to respect freedoms in Hong Kong when it regained the territory in 1997.

Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the CPJ hoped it would "ramp up pressure on the Chinese government to allow its citizens to access the news and information they need". A Paris-based rights group, Reporters Without Borders, called Google's decision a bold move which other internet companies should follow. Foreign internet companies have to comply with China's stringent censorship rules before being allowed to operate in the country.

Announcing the decision, Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said that providing uncensored searches through the Hong Kong-based google.com.hk website was "entirely legal" and would "meaningfully increase access to information for people in China".

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