Google and China in a new row as company stops web censorship

K J M Varma and Lalit K Jha
Beijing/Washington, Mar 23 (PTI) Uncertainty loomed over
China operations of the world's leading internet search engine
Google as the company stopped censoring web search results and
redirected hunt queries from mainland to an uncensored site in
Hong Kong.
The move, which came after months of war of words between
the company and Beijing, raised the hackles in China with
authorities reacting sharply to the decision and calling the
move "totally wrong" and accusing Google. Inc of violating
promises.
"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," official Xinhua news agency quoted
an official of the state internet bureau as saying.
His comments came about two hours after the online search
service provider announced it has stopped censoring its
Chinese-language search engine Google.cn and is redirecting
Chinese mainland users to a site in Hong Kong, a former
British colony, now a special administrative region of China.
The internet titan announced the move in a blog post. The
company's chief legal officer David Drummond said while it was
ending censorship in China, it planned to keep sales, research
and development teams on the Chinese mainland, which has the
world's largest web users, set to be numbering more than 384
million.
The tussle between Google and Chinese authorities also
echoed in Washington where the White House said it was
"disappointed" Google could not reach a deal with Beijing and
said US President Barack Obama is "committed to internet
freedom and... opposed to censorship".
US National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said
"the US-China relationship is mature enough to sustain
differences".
Drummond, Google's top legal adviser said, "we hope the
Chinese government would respect the company's decision,
though we are well aware it could at any time block access".
"Users visiting Google.cn are now redirected to
Google.com.hk where we are offering uncensored search in
simplified Chinese," he said.
But within hours, web searchers in China reported being
unable to track sites such as "Falun gong" and "June 4" which
refer to the Tiananmen square pro-democracy riots in 1989,
apparently suggesting that the Chinese had blocked these
sites.
The Information official said relevant departments of the
Chinese government held talks with Google twice at its
requests, on January 29 and February 25 respectively, to hear
the "company's real intentions" and the government was sincere
in its efforts. MORE PTI