Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Editorial

Google vs. China, the Sequel

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.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 24 of the New York edition with the headline: Google vs. China, the Sequel. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT