<<This attack, which was from China, was different. It was almost singularly focused on getting into Gmail accounts specifically of human rights activists, inside China or outside. They tried to do that through Google systems that thwarted them. On top of that, there were separate attacks, many of them, on individual Gmail users who were political activists inside and outside China. There were political aspects to this hacking attacks that were quite unusual.


That was distasteful to us. It seemed to us that this was all part of an overall system bent on suppressing expression, whether it was by controlling internet search results or trying to surveil activists. It is all part of the same repressive program, from our point of view. We felt that we were being part of that.

That was the direct connection with the hacking incident. It wasn't in isolation. Since the Beijing Olympics, our experience in China has gotten worse. Although we have gained market share, it has become more and more difficult for us to operate there. Particularly when it comes to censorship. We have had to censor more. More and more pressure has been put on us. It has gotten appreciably worse – and not just for us, for other internet companies too.

So we increasingly came to feel that the original premise of our entry into China was being undermined. We thought when we went in that we could help to open the country and things could get better by our being there. Things seemed to be getting worse.>>

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2010/03/an-interview-with-david-drummond-of-google/37896/

IMO the most interesting post on this issue so far.

Google is really surprisingly naive sometimes.

What _did_ they expect? That the civilization of two thousand years will change its worldview just because it hurts the profits and reputation of some US company merely ten years old? Incredible.

I always thought these were just marketing tricks to persuade people that Google is still "good". But from this, it really, really seems that they genuinely expected China to change. It seems that the easyness with which Google can mold the laws and culture in America and Europe, has led them to thinking they can do the same in Asia. Big mistake.

[Added an update to the post in regards to how Chinese authorities allegedly try to manage the information about these issues.]

[Edit: I moved the information of the update into the latest post on the Motorola issue.]

That new location of a morphed version of Philipp's update can be found in the blog entry "Motorola Replaces Google With Bing in China".
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2010-03-26-n58.html

My earlier comments may be found in the forum thread "The chinese press reporting foreigners commenting on google leaving china".
http://blogoscoped.com/forum/169130.html#id169200

The source is from The China Digital Times story "The Ministry of Truth Limits Reporting on Google in China 03/23/10 (Updated)".
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/03/the-latest-directives-from-the-ministry-of-truth-032310/

To Veky,

While China has a civilization of a few thousand years, the communist rules China (mainland, the People Republic of China) for just around 60 years. Hong Kong and Taiwan (the Republic of China) are within Chinese civilization, however both have no such censorship, probably because they are not ruled by the communist.

Google's business and alike simply harm the foundation of the communist's rule. Be reminded, it was the communist party starting the Great Culture Revolution destroying Chinese civilization more than anyone else did.

Google helps the spread of Chinese civilization more than anyone ever did.

Andy Wong:
   Well, Hong Kong is not a part of Republic of China...