What you don’t know about Google in China
Google is an American multinational technology company dedicated to Internet search, cloud computing, advertising technology, and other fields. It develops and provides a large number of Internet-based products and services. From the beginning to now, Google has always been at the forefront of world technology. It has conquered every corner, except China!
In China, Chinese netizens are unable to log in to Google web pages in normal ways. All domains related to Google cannot be connected all the time. This includes all Google apps, all Google-based servers and software, and all Google-based things banned in China, except for the use of VPNs or special methods to “surmount the wall” to foreign servers in China. No user can use Google stuff.
What makes Google give up hundreds of millions of daily activities users?
What caused Google to be banned in China?
Is it the government’s intervention or the company’s choice?
The Begining
Before 2010, China could access and use the Google search engine casually. However, in June 2009, Google China was exposed by China Central Television that the search results contained pornographic information. This exposure indirectly or directly led to the official resignation of Li Kaifu, Google’s global vice president and president of Greater China, before September 4, 2009.
A few months later, Google posted a blog post on its official website called “a new approach to China,” It said it would stop filtering search results in China. Stop filtering search results in the Chinese market, which means that Google’s processing of search results will no longer be in accordance with Chinese laws. Therefore, Google China can withdraw from the Chinese market.
Triggering Event
In the afternoon of the same day, the direct collision between the world’s Internet search giant Google and China’s network management also triggered an “earthquake.” Netizens’ arguments about “Google’s exit from China” swept across the Chinese Internet like an earthquake wave. Online debates between “G fans” who supported Google and “Baifen” who
supported Baidu immediately launched online debates, and forum blogs were full of gunpowder. With the US White House’s support for Google and the response from the Chinese foreign ministry, more and more voices different from the two camps have appeared on the Internet, and some netizens have begun to reflect on the impact of multinational enterprises in China and the future development of China’s Internet.
Event Start
After the incident, as a Fortune 500 multinational company, Google did not follow the normal business operation channels when solving the problems faced by the company. Instead, it chose the “horizontal collision” approach with the Chinese government, requiring it to operate its business in China without censorship. After Google’s chief legal counsel delivered the news that “Google may withdraw from China” in the form of a blog post, everyone, including Chinese netizens and industry insiders, was almost surprised at first reaction because of this action. There is no warning like an earthquake.
What is striking is that the tit-for-tat stance on the Internet regarding Google’s withdrawal from China is extremely fierce. These days, almost every Google-related news on the Internet has attracted hundreds or even thousands of comments from netizens. The confrontation between the two parties with different views is fierce and sparks.
A small number of netizens also label the opponent’s camp as “patriotic” and “traitor” based on different viewpoints and positions. Some “G fans” criticize the opponent’s faction for not knowing the truth and blindly patriotic, “If you really want to return the Chinese Internet to the Stone Age, it doesn’t matter if you just scold Google.” The anti-Google camp responded with a “traitor,” accusing “some people have an almost abnormal adoration of Google, blinded by external forces and willing to be chess pieces for an external force to beat China.
While expressing emotionally about Google’s leaving news, netizens argue about the reasons and motivations for Google’s decision. Some netizens believe that Google’s exit is related to its poor performance in the Chinese market and is normal corporate behavior. “As an invincible Internet search predator globally, Google has been second in China for three years. This is a failure in itself.” “It’s not that Google chose to leave China, but that the Chinese market abandoned Google. It’s clearer to compare the status of Microsoft and Cisco in China, both of which are also Fortune 500 companies.”
Netizen, “You Tofu,” believes that as a globally respected new economy company, Google has failed to achieve cultural integration in the Chinese market at least, and this is a problem that any multinational company must solve for its development outside its home country. Netizen “pandarou” said, “Although Google is a world-class company, it is still very young after all, and it is only a drop in the ocean in the face of China’s five thousand years of culture, and there are still many places to learn.”
Ending
Until January 13, 2010, Google decided not to censor search results on Google. Google will negotiate with the Chinese government in the next few weeks to require the ability to operate an unfiltered censored search engine within the Chinese legal framework. At 3:03 a.m. Beijing time on March 23, 2010, Google accused China of hacking and announced that it would stop “filtering and censorship” Google’s search service in China and transfer the search service from mainland China to Hong Kong, China.
Google Digital Library Event
At that time, copyright incidents also indirectly affected Google’s evaluation in China. At the “2009 China Copyright Annual Conference” recently concluded by the China Copyright Association, “the promotion of copyright value in the digital network environment” became the conference theme. There are two definitions of “digital network environment” and “copyright.” Most of the guests’ speeches mentioned the recent hot “Google Digital Library incident.”
Google’s attitude
The American Google company began to digitize books on a large scale in 2004, which triggered some American book publishers and the American Writers Association to sue Google, accusing its book-scanning project of infringing their copyrights. Subsequently, such disputes extended to countries around the world, and China was one of them.
Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the National Copyright Administration of China, pointed out that there are now more than 300 million Internet users in China. In the next two years, the number of Internet users may reach 500 to 600 million. While the Internet has profoundly changed people’s thinking and lifestyles, it has also brought about huge disputes on copyright. This is a problem that needs to be faced by the world. He said: “What is the solution? It is not a system of legal copyright in the virtual world but another legal system in real life. Encourage the creation of knowledge, and seek various authorized uses under the premise of respect for the creation of knowledge Way, this is the most basic principle.”
Chinese attitude
In China, in early November 2009, the Chinese Character Copyright Association represented some Chinese character copyright owners suspected of being infringed by Google in negotiations with Google, but no agreement was reached. On the evening of November 18th, the Chinese Writers Association issued a “Rights Protection Notice,” requiring Google not to scan and collect works of Chinese writers in any form without authorization from that day and to scan and collect works by Chinese writers without authorization. Google The settlement plan must be submitted before December 31, and the compensation must be handled as soon as possible. In an interview with reporters, Ms. Lu Jie, head of the Office for the Protection of Rights and Interests of Chinese Collaborators, said: “According to our national law, although he said that he did not spread, the scanning and recording (act) itself at least violated the copyright owner’s right to copy. We think we should Let all writers know about this and protect their rights. Those who have not been scanned must stop now, and he must obtain authorization before starting.”
Copyright Lawsuits
Several well-known IT companies in the world have encountered copyright lawsuits in recent years. The challenges brought by the development of the Internet to copyright protection have entangled the concerns of all parties. Some people think that if a large number of works must be authorized by the copyright owner one by one, it will greatly hinder the dissemination of cultural achievements. Others believe that the Google digital library scans the work first and then adds the authorization after the copyright owner is notified. This is also a solution; Han Han, a young Chinese writer, supports Google in his blog; but more people call Google’s actions “robbers.”
Regarding various disputes, Professor Xinming Cao, executive deputy director of the Intellectual Property Research Center of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, believes that regardless of whether it is traditional media or new media, the principle of respect for copyright protection should remain unchanged: “here is no contradiction between massive information dissemination and whether an authorization is required. To deal with the new network environment, especially the digital library, giving more convenient authorization methods requires further consideration. But does this mean that it can be used without authorization? This is not possible. At least for now, The laws of various countries in the world, including international conventions, do not allow unauthorized use.”
The same problem is also facing Chinese companies. Liu Chengyong, general manager of China Publishing Group Digital Media Co., Ltd., said that copyright is the guarantee for the digital industry to obtain content resources: “If the development of technology leads to the disrespect of copyright, then I don’t think anyone will create a highly original. Quality content, then our content resources are empty. Digital copyright protection has two aspects: protection on the one hand, and dissemination on the other, to establish a balance between dissemination and protection.”
Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, accepted an interview with ABC on January 25. Regarding the Google China incident, Gates believes that the Internet must grow and develop in China and become an engine for freedom of speech. He emphasized that to operate a business in a certain country, one must abide by the laws of that country.
Just like what Bill Gates said, if a company attempts to develop and expand in other countries, the first thing to do is respect local laws instead of insisting on itself and not making changes. Although Google failed to enter the Chinese market, it also enabled China to develop its own search engine and various emerging technologies, rather than let Google dominate. This may also be a place judged by Chinese policymakers at the time, which made it impossible for the United States to seize China’s grip on today’s poor Sino-US relations, nor to allow China to invade.
