Google thwarted by Chinese firewall despite Hong Kong move

SHANGHAI – Google’s daring middle-of-the-night move to redirect its China.cn search engine to Hong Kong was dramatic, but ultimately ineffectual.

On Tuesday, mainland Chinese Internet users could see the two-line description of search results for such previously censored topics as Falun Gong and Tiananmen Square, but they could still not access stories or documents related to the topics.

Instead, they got a routine error message, "The connection was reset . . ."

Showing the search results instead of Google.cn’s usual disclaimer that because of local laws some of the search results will not be shown, was an improvement, but not much of one.

In fact, it is exactly what has been happening for several years to customers in mainland China who used the English language Google.com search engine. Google was not self-censoring this site, but when accessed from inside the so-called "Great Firewall of China," the Chinese government did its own dirty work.

In a statement, the California-based Internet giant warned that its stealthy move to redirect all users on the Chinese mainland to Google.com.hk might temporarily overload its systems in Hong Kong and "users may see some slowdown in service." No truer words were said Tuesday. Google searches were at times labourious and Google.com.hk was prone to disappear from the screen for no reason.

Users may not have gained much from Google’s moonlight flit to Hong Kong, the former British colony that is still treated as a special region by Beijing and not subject to its censorship laws, but the anti-censorship gesture did earn Google some fulsome praise from human rights activists, many of whom were critical of Google’s decision four years ago to self-censor in order to gain entry into the vast Chinese market.

"Google’s decision to offer an uncensored search engine is an important step to challenge the Chinese government’s use of censorship to maintain its control over its citizens," said Arvind Ganesan, business and human rights director at Human Rights Watch.

Chinese web users woke up Tuesday to the news of Google’s move and many were quick to experiment with the new Google site – and they were quickly disappointed.

"Once you search any sensitive words, you are harmonized," wrote one, using the web-slang "harmonized" to mean censored.

Another, who identified himself as Gonggao, was coolly ironic when he wrote: "Warm congratulations to the Great Firewall of China for achieving another stage of victory. I suggest we establish March 23 as the Day of the Great Firewall of China. All citizens should get one day off to experience the harmonious Internet at home."

Google announced its intention to stop censoring Internet searches on Jan. 12. At the time, it called for meetings with the Chinese government to work out a means to achieve its end and still operate on the mainland. Then, for the next 10 weeks, it maintained an almost complete silence about the dispute. Now, however, it has emerged that what meetings there were between Chinese officials and Google executives must have been little more than a dialogue of the deaf.

In a statement from the State Council Information Office, an unnamed Chinese official said: "After repeated requests from Google, and to hear its real views face-to-face and demonstrate China’s sincerity, on Jan. 29 and Feb. 25 of this year responsible officials from China’s relevant authorities held talks with Google, and offered patient and detailed explanations about the issues raised."

He continued: "They stressed that foreign companies in China should abide by Chinese laws, and if Google is willing to abide by Chinese laws, we continue to welcome it operating and developing in China."

For Google’s part, David Drummond, a senior vice-president at the California-based company, said in a statement that "the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement."

China began the day with angry words, saying, "Google has violated the written promise it made on entering the Chinese market," but ended it on a cooler note.

At his regular press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters: "The Google incident is the individual act of a commercial company. I don’t see that it would have any impact on China-U.S. relations, unless some people want to politicize it."

It remains to be seen whether the war of words between Google and the Chinese government has run its course. Google made it clear it wants to keep some parts of its business, namely a sales team and some research and development workers, in China, but that will depend on the goodwill of the government.

As Drummond pointed out: "We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services."