Google shuts down China service and redirects to HK

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, has explained why the internet search giant carried through on its promise yesterday to end censorship of its local Chinese search engine and redirect requests to its new Hong Kong operation beyond the reach of Chinese censors.

Officials in Beijing have called Google's decision "totally wrong", and accused the firm of breaking a pledge it made as a condition of entering the Chinese market.

In an interview with the New York Times, Brin accused Beijing of lacking in "clarity" in recent negotiations. "Our hope is that the newly begun Hong Kong service will continue to be available in mainland China."

Two months ago Google described attempts to hack into its networks and revealed evidence of an apparent attempt to hack into the gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents as reason to review its policy on China.

But the decision to switch visitors from Google's Chinese site to a Chinese language version in Hong Kong could escalate into a full stand-off between the US search giant and China, which could rescind Google's permission to use Google.cn or block access to sites in Hong Kong.

"We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicisation of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts," a Chinese official told the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said: "China's policies of encouraging internet development will remain unchanged. So will be its policies of managing the internet according to Chinese laws and regulations."

While the White House says it "respects" Google's decision, the company is keen to stress that US government is not involved in shaping the company's policy.

Brin noted that he'd lived in the Soviet Union until he was nearly six, an experience that helped shape his opinion of censorship and the curtailment of political freedoms. While China has made great strides, he said, it had a totalitarian mentality in matters of censorship, political speech and internet communications: "Our objection is to those forces of totalitarianism," he said.

What happens next is open to question. Google controls 36 per cent of the Chinese search market and employs nearly 700 people on the mainland. "Given that we have not yet worked out all the details, we cannot rule out letting people go, though we very much want to avoid that," said a Google spokesman.

But Brin expressed optimism that China will ultimately relax its censorship of the web. "Our hope is there is progress and a more open internet in China," he observed. "I think that in the long term, they are going to have to open." The question is, will the Chinese come to see it that way, too? ·