It seems Google is likely to be closings its doors to the Chinese public, largely due to the company’s refusal to abide by the Chinese government’s tough censorship. Google pledged earlier this year that they would stop following these censoring requirements on Google.cn, spurring the Chinese government to consider how far they will let Google go in the future. Now it doesn’t seem far at all; if the Chinese Google site is closed, which is very possible, Google could still offer a Chinese site from offshore.
This would allow authorities to ban certain sites within their country, although that would run the risk of infuriating Google’s viewers. The government could disrupt viewing to the site by slowing it down to avoid judgment. As Google is one of the only foreign internet businesses in China, to have them leave would mean that the remaining web access would be dominated by local companies, a situation which would suit the government well, as they can more largely restrict information access of these companies.
One would think that this would be enough for the world to wonder just what it is that the Chinese government wants to hide, both by secluding itself in the first place by not allowing any foreign company to gain a direct internet-content license, and threatening to kick Google.cn out for not abiding by its tough censorship regulations.
Source: Chao, L & Worthen, B 2010, ‘Google.cn search engine close to being shut down in China,' The Australian, 15 March.
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