BBC reports "China warns Google to comply with censorship laws":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8564822.stm
Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong: "I hope that Google will abide and respect the Chinese government's laws and regulations ... But, if you betray Chinese laws and regulations... it means that you are unfriendly, irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences." |
And:
<<Google Inc. has drawn up detailed plans to shut its search engine in China and is “99.9 percent” certain of going ahead with the closure, the Financial Times reported today, citing a person it didn’t name.>>
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-13/google-99-9-percent-sure-to-shut-down-in-china-ft-says.html |
Let's wait and see if it's true.
http://googlefont.com/google/rnd/Gone.cn.gif |
This is the right image url :-)
http://www.websonic.nl/nieuws/032010/images/gone_cn.jpg |
Firstly, here is the origin of the unsourced "99.9 per cent" quote:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/dd69e680-2e06-11df-b85c-00144feabdc0.html
Secondly, there are some really odd things about this story. Consider these two paragraphs from the BBC news report:
<<<Relations between China and Google cooled in January after what Google described as a sophisticated cyber attack in which the webmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists were targeted.
Since then, the firm has been in talks with Chinese officials about how to provide an unfiltered service but still remain within the law.>>>
(1) It's hard to imagine that Google was really talking with the Chinese about "how to provide an unfiltered service but still remain within the law" when it's obvious that there is zero chance of this being possible, and
(2) Why would Google open discussions about web censorship in response to the suspected hacking of the webmail accounts? Surely Google would be wanting to discuss quite different things.
I'm interested to see how this plays out, because I don't think the published snippets are on the right track. |
