As the Chinese Communist Party sees it, its very hold on power depends on tightly controlling the access of ordinary Chinese to information about their country, their rulers and the world at large. When Google decided in March to stop self-censoring search results in China by automatically redirecting queries to its uncensored service in Hong Kong, no one should have been surprised if Beijing rejected the scheme.
The Chinese government is now pushing back, threatening not to renew Google’s license as an Internet content provider. It is Google’s challenge to stick to the spirit of its promise and never censor its searches in China again. To give in now would make Google into an accomplice of China’s repressive government.
So far, Google’s response to Beijing’s displeasure appears consistent with its original vow. Instead of automatically rerouting queries to its Hong Kong engine, it started sending visitors to www.google.cn to a new “landing page” that links to the Hong Kong Web site, where users can perform searches beyond the reach of Chinese government censors.
And Google has insisted it has no intention of backtracking on its promise not to censor itself — that much-lauded announcement that said that if self-censorship is a requirement to remain then it must abandon China. Yet Beijing has not said whether it finds this solution acceptable. It may not.
This bit of skirmishing with Google comes amid a general tightening of China’s online censorship. And Google clearly is not eager to leave the world’s largest Internet market.
It is true, as Google often says, that its departure from China would impose a cost on the many Chinese who have relied on its search engine as a window into the Internet and, thus, into the world.
But a censored Google is worse than no Google at all. Threatening to depart, it at least clarifies to Chinese Internet users the extent of their government’s control over information and the cost this policy entails.
______________________________________
Google must stick to its guns and not give in to this despotic regime. China has received a lot of positive press recently and is looked upon as a model nation by many in developing countries. The nativity, with which they brush away question concerning the Chinese governments obsessive attempts to control speech and freedom, is quite troubling. China is not a free and open society and should not be treated as such. Corporations. who do business there, should not collude with Chinese government officials in suppressing the civil rights of the Chinese people. If China wants to fully join the community of nations its human rights abuses must end. Until such time all efforts must be taken to insure the free flow of information to the Chinese people. Google is taking courageous steps in this direction.
John H. Armwood
No comments:
Post a Comment