Google Faces No Hong Kong Censors After China Retreat

[Robb]

Source: Business Week

March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong says it won’t help China censor Google Inc., after the search engine provider said it would route mainland users through its site in the city.

Hong Kong respects freedom of information and its free flow, a spokesman for the city’s Information Services Department said yesterday, declining to be identified as a matter of policy. There are no restrictions on access to Web sites, including access to Hong Kong-based Web sites from China, he said.

While China regularly blocks content from Web sites outside its borders, Hong Kong’s reaction illustrates the autonomy it enjoys under the “One Country, Two Systems” policy that guided its 1997 return to Chinese sovereignty. Hong Kong’s constitution, the Basic Law, guarantees freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom and privacy of communication.

The government’s response to Google’s move yesterday “highlights Hong Kong’s advantages,” said David Zweig, a political scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “It’s worth reminding people that they can come to Hong Kong because of ‘One Country, Two Systems.”

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-23/google-faces-no-hong-kong-censors-after-china-retreat.html

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Well, well. :)

[Joanne98]

1. Go Google!

[Romulox]

2. The censorship will be done on the mainland side. Gimmeabreak. nt

[Robb]

3. Yep. But by China, not Google.

[Romulox]

4. Which makes this all a PR stunt, more than anything. nt

[Hosnon]

5. I disagree. Now Google holds the high ground, and anyone not happy with the censorship

has only one entity to blame: China.

[Romulox]

7. Nonsense. Google has sacrificed nothing, changed nothing. It can pat iself on the back,

because I doubt anybody else will.

"only one entity to blame: China."

Google appears to be working cheek to jowl with China to manage this situation precisely in the manner the Communist Party prefers.

[Hosnon]

8. They certainly have sacrificed something.

The Chinese can still block them. Google chose to defy China and now risks losing out on the entire Chinese market.

And it doesn't make sense to say that this is precisely what the Communist Party prefers. They prefer no restrictions on Google?

[Romulox]

9. Oh brother.

"Google chose to defy China and now risks losing out on the entire Chinese market."

No it doesn't. It's moving its HQ and equipment to HK (a supposedly "independent" country, no less!). Read the article.

"They prefer no restrictions on Google?"

Where are you getting "no restrictions on Google"? :shrug: The Chinese people will be behind the same government firewall they've always been behind. Nothing's changed but the geographic location of a few computers, and a few executives...

[Hosnon]

10. Can the condescension. It's unnecessary.

The laws of Hong Kong do not force Google to self-censor, as the laws in the rest of China do. Prior to this move, Google could have either (a) self-censored and been part of the problem or (b) refused to self-censor and probably been kicked out of the market for violating the law.

Removing the legal restraint gives Google the moral high ground. Its refusal to self-censor cannot be attacked as a violation of Chinese law. Now, any censorship rests solely on China.

[Romulox]

11. Again, nonsense. One gains "the moral high ground" through sacrifice for one's beliefs.

Not by going along to get along while hiring a decent PR firm. :hi:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. What the hell were they supposed to do, then? -nt

[pampango]

6. Exactly. Google can stop helping the Chinese government with censorship, but

it can't stop their government from doing what they've always done. Interesting that they moved their operation to Hong Kong (still legally a part of China) rather than Japan or somewhere else in Asia. I wonder if they think they're making a point by staying in a part of China where the government can't shut them down (they hope).

"...the Chinese "Great Firewall" system has for a long time been sophisticated about limiting how many outside-China results can make their way into mainland. So this could be nothing more than the automatic operation of the previous system, treating the Hong Kong servers as a "foreign" source."

"(Hong Kong, again, has been a "Special Administrative Region" of the People's Republic since the British handover in 1997, but it operates under many different rules from the mainland, notably those covering press freedom and individual expression.)"

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2010/03/a-clarification-on-earlier-searching-in-china-note/37869/