Google may turn off Chinese search engine within days

Internet giant Google is in trouble, saying the Chinese Government is unlikely to renew its license to operate in the country unless it stops redirecting traffic to the Hong Kong home page.

Google could even be forced to leave the country entirely, as it was feared earlier this year when the company said it would refuse to censor search results.

In a new blog post by chief legal officer David Drummond, he describes how the company has redirected traffic from the Chinese Google site to the Hong Kong site to get around censorship issues.

“However, it’s clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable – and that if we continue redirecting users our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed (it’s up for renewal on June 30).”

“Without an ICP license, we can’t operate a commercial website like Google.cn – so Google would effectively go dark in China.”

Chinese users are understandably worried about the possible change, as it would leave them with no unfiltered option. But Google says a small alternative – moving users to a landing page on Google.cn that links to Google.com.hk – might work.

“This approach ensures we stay true to our commitment not to censor our results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of our services from one page.”

“Over the next few days we’ll end the redirect entirely, taking all our Chinese users to our new landing page – and today we re-submitted our ICP license renewal application based on this approach.”

Google said earlier this year it would review its operations in China, after a number of cyber-attacks targeted Gmail users. It also said it would no longer comply with Chinese Government regulations requiring it to censor search results.
It is understood China would have no problem if Google abandoned its operations. Earlier this year a government official told state news agency Xinhua that “Google has violated its written premise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its search service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks”.

“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.”