And here I go… posting on the same topic. I don’t want to post on this topic because its one of those things which is useless to talk about. On the other hand, I feel I need closure… I need to wrap it up. Not just wrap up my opinion, but also the opinions of many.
[Late Night Update: Just found out (from China Law Blog) that Will at Imagethief also published an "End-All-Be-All" post with a very handy chart.]
The media in the West have eaten, digested, and then regurgitated out a story for all to consume. It’s a stupid story… a story which comes from a Manichean world view. I can’t change this view, except maybe amongst my friends, who usually already understand that the world is not black and white. My new business blog had, at maximum, 43 viewers yesterday. My personal blog (I assume) has less. So it is not reasonable for me to think that I can change anyone’s mind by posting my view on the G-topic. Furthermore, I risk getting a reputation as an “appeaser”, because that’s what my view seems like, if you buy into the standard narrative.
So first of all, I want to say that I’m not an appeaser. I see so much wrong with the government of the country I live in. I see how its censorship and authoritarian nature negatively influences the culture of China. And I see examples of corruption and stupidity everywhere. I also see that the challenges which face this nation are very different, and much greater in magnitude, than the challenges that face my country, the United States. I also see everyday the good things which China has accomplished. But I do not keep a “good versus bad score-card”. Such categorization does not help me understand my environment.
Enough meta-reasoning. Lets recap what has happened. The following, in my opinion, is the narrative distributed by Western media:
2005
– Google Enters the China market with “google.cn”. We are to believe that by entering the China market, Google can influence China (society and government) to become free-er with information flow.
Between 2005 and 2010
– China increases censorship demands on Google.cn. Google makes heroic efforts to comply with these unreasonable demands, yet somehow does not dominate the market, like it should(And thanks to china/divide to pointing this out)
Before Mar., 23, 2010
– Google enters into tough negotiations with China to persuade China’s government against the self-censorship requirements.
After Mar. 23, 2010
-Google has achieved a PR win. Google executives testify to congress about curbs on internet Freedom
-Some say that the switch to google.com.hk will illustrate to Chinese people that their internet experience is filtered and manipulated. Some others say the same thing.
-Some call for other US companies to follow Google’s lead. Including the NYT.
-GoDaddy.com decides to pull out of China, where it gets less than .5% of its revenue.
-Many people think that Google.com is blocked in China, but somehow google.com.hk is not.
-Google leaving China will actually make China’s other internet companies weaker because they won’t have competition (you know… like how Toyota was made weak because they didn’t have good competition in their local marketsJ
Now my view (which, of course, is a better view because I KNOW):
Before 2005
Many Chinese people – especially educated, influential netzines who sometimes do English language searches – use Google.com’s search service because it produces search results which are not influenced by advertising revenue or government directives.
I would even say that this product, in China, “does good” because it allows people to get search results they otherwise could not get from local search companies (ie. Baidu). This site shows that the differences between the two engines is, on average, 85%. If you do not understand Chinese, you can still go there and see what are the site-names shown at the top of any given search. But the very fact that Google became popular shows that Chinese netzines understood that different search engines show different results. This, TO ME, implies a deep awareness of Chinese netzines to the government censoring.
Search result links from google.com are sometimes blocked by the Great Firewall of China (GFC) if the GFC “thinks” a search result contains porn or politically sensitive subjects. Sometimes the whole search result page is completely blocked. This happens if you, say for example, continuously search for nude pictures of Gong Li.
I actually could not find a naked picture. So this will have to do
2005
– Google Enters the China market with “google.cn”. Google self-censors this site according to China’s law. Google.cn’s default interface Chinese Simplified characters. I never use it, but it functions much better (faster and more relevant to China) than Google.com, which is filtered by the GFC. Google products increase in popularity. In my opinion, (and the opinion of Gizmodo) when Google entered into China with Google.cn, they forgo the right to complain about censorship, as they decided they can live with it. They enter into relationships with customers in order to provide their service to Chinese people
Between 2005 to 2010
- China increases censorship demands on Google.cn. At the same time, the number of “.cn” internet sites registered in China has multiplied by 9 since 2006. However, Google has not shown that the government changed its policy during this time, or become in any way more restrictive. In terms of censorship as a ratio of available information, the censorship has decreased drastically (assuming we are not also counting porn).
-During this time, a funny trend is happening on many Chinese discussion boards. People often talk about “river crabs” and alpaca. Why? Well… Alpaca, in Chinese, means grass mud horse. Grass, in Chinese, sounds a little like a derogatory expression meaning “to have sex”. The Chinese word for “mud” sounds just like the word for “you”. Note that when describing your own body, or personal relatives, the possessive form of “your”, “mine”, “their”, etc is shortened to the non-possessive form (you, me, they). “Horse”, in Chinese, can sound a little like the word for “mother”. “River Crab” sounds just like the word “harmony”. Which can be used as a verb “to harmonize”. “Harmony” is used by the “Internet Police” explicitly to mean “censor”, or in some way artificially influence an online discussion. So… on the Chinese internet, there have been many stories told about the epic battle between the river crabs and the Alpaca. And this story has plenty of variations. This story suggests that most…all… Chinese netzines are already very aware of government censorship.
An Alpaca. Has nothing to do with this post. Or?
Jan., 2010
– Google announces that it will stop self-censoring its search results from google.cn. There are several reasons why they may have done that. I do not take any at face value and neither does Chinayouren.
Before Mar., 23, 2010
– Google enters into tough negotiations with China TO SEE HOW IT CAN LEAVE CHINA WITHOUT COMPLETELY DESTROYING ITS CHINA BUSINESS. The negotiations are not about convincing the government to change the law… Google’s management is not that stupid.
Mar. 23, 2010
– Google announces that it will redirect google.cn to google.com.hk. As HK is in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong is the beneficiary of the “One Nation, Two Systems” policy, google.com.hk does not need to self-censor. However, Google.com.cn is outside of the GFW. So it is censored. In fact, it is no different than google.com, except that at least with google.com, you have more of a choice of what languages to use. Google saying that they are still in China, (now compliant with Chinese law) is crap. This is a PR win in the US, but they have pissed off the Chinese government. Furthermore, the Google.cn domain will most likely cease to exist in the near future (license will not be renewed), so there won’t be redirect. Which means that Google will fade from memory in China. Which means that there is one less link between the “Chinese internet” and the “outside internet”. Which means that people will be less aware that there is a choice.
-Of course Chinese people have a means to search. But now they will need to search on services which actively promote government-sponsored search results, as well as hidden-sponsor promoted results as opposed to Google.cn, which just censored some topics.
-To get past the Great Firewall, all you need is a VPN. Most people working in the multinational companies use VPN every day. You can buy the service for about $6 per month. The Chinese government accepts this. But for the less-educated…the less monied common people, they will not desire to invest in VPN (the free VPN and proxy services are blocked). So they will know less of the internet outside of China. Which is mostly not in Chinese language anyway, so mostly they ignore it. And lets face reality here…most Chinese people with money are basically satisfied with the status quo.
After Mar. 23, 2010
– The world starts taking note about the impact to Google. As do some of my favorite online magazines. Major partners to Google in China start distancing themselves…This is recorded and recorded and recorded in the Western news. US businesses start to feel unwelcome in China… and some attribute this to the Google issue. But, with the exception of GoDaddy, no other company follows Google.
-Many many people feel sad about Google leaving and wish they stayed. I count myself in this group.
In the future…
Google.cn will evaporate. Hence, Chinese people will now have LESS choice on how they get their information. This would be ok if Chinese people went out to find Google.com. BUT, the way that Google left China has made it not-popular with the Government. Which increases the likelihood that Google.com gets blocked.
In the end, one of three things will happen.
a) Google.com.hk will continue to exist. And be effectively no different from Google.com.
b) Google.com.hk will come under more blocking. Which means that Google will slowly completely lose mind-share in the market, being replaced by Baidu
c) Or Everything Google gets blocked. And I will be very upset. But again, for China it means the same.
End results: Google gets a big PR win in the West for “standing up” against the Chinese. Meanwhile, Google’s Chinese customers are betrayed. Chinese people (and foreigners like myself who live in China) have less access to information because, when using Google.com, at least we were able to see a search result which was created using algorithms, instead of a search result created by politics and/or money.
Is that a moral victory worth praising?
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