03/18/10
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Google-China talks 'stall,' company prepares to shut down Chinese operations
Reports indicate that talks between search giant Google and the Chinese government have reached an impasse, and that the company is readying itself for a full-scale withdrawal from China since it will no longer honor the government's censorship demands.
Information Week's Thomas Claburn reports that “the company in January said it would stop censoring its search results in China following a sophisticated cyber-attack from China that targeted the Gmail accounts of human rights organizations and resulted in the theft of its intellectual property.”
According to the New York Times, Chinese authorities have warned Google's advertising and search partners in the country that no violation of censorship laws would be tolerated, and that any such acts would be met with a forced shutdown. “The government's warning was a reminder to operators that they are responsible for any content on their sites, even if it is provided by a third party like Google. Those companies could switch to services that are more accommodating to the government, like Baidu, the search engine that holds the dominant share inside China,” the paper says.
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