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Google Now Essentially Shut Down In China
China is now playing hardball, and this is even without Paul Krugman being in the picture (yet). The WSJ reports that China has now blocked virtually "all searches by Chinese users on Google
Inc. sites Tuesday, sharply escalating the battle with the U.S.
Internet giant a week after it stopped obeying Beijing's censorship
rules." This is hardly unexpected, yet what it means is that just as the US stock market will now be defined by QQQQ, C, BOFA and now APPL, as consumers decide against paying their mortgage and reroute their meager unemployment checks into advance orders for the iPad, so the Shanghai Composite will be determined solely by BIDU.
From the WSJ:
Users in cities across China starting late Tuesday afternoon
reported that all searches—even of terms as mundane as "happy"—on
Google's Hong Kong site produced an error message saying the results
page couldn't be opened. Google stopped operating its self-censored
Chinese search site on March 22 and began routing Chinese users to the
Hong Kong site, which Google doesn't censor. Searches by Chinese users
on Google's main global site, Google.com, also returned error messages
Tuesday.
Users in some cities said they couldn't access Google.cn, the
mainland Chinese Web address Google has long used, which since last
week has automatically sent users to the Hong Kong site. Google's music
search service also appeared to be inaccessible.
It wasn't immediately clear if the disruption would be permanent.
China's Internet censorship regime, unofficially known as the Great
Firewall, is opaque and unpredictable and officials almost never
discuss its workings. Wang Lijian, spokesman for the Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology, one of China's main Internet
regulators, said he was unaware of any disruption. A Google spokeswoman
declined to immediately comment.
This is nothing more than the first shots in a full blown trade war. Next up: multinationals whose revenue comes in big part from China will, just like in the case of Obama's healthcare reform, start announcing mysterious "one-time" charges associated with doing business in Mainland China.
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Strong economies don't need to block the flow of public information.
While Google is now being heralded as the shining beacon of freedom every corporation should emulate, why was the initial decision by Google to censor treated so deferentially in the mainstream media.
I distinctly remembers articles that pointed out that poor old Google had to go along to get along in order to assure themselves a place in the mecca called China. And, of course, the profits. Don't forget the profits.
This entire change stinks of week old fish left locked in the trunk during the high heat of summer. Give me a break.
What do you want them to do? Stay, or go, or what?
What I want is for the hypocrisy to stop, both from Google and the mainstream media.
Short of that impossiblity, I would like a bigger pipeline for my daily Google porn fix. :>)
I think the owners of Google are quasi-political animals, left-leaning, not unlike Ben & Jerry's Icecream. They were content enough to "do as the Romans do" while operating in communist China under rules of censorship until the Chinese did what they always do to American companies with advanced technology---they cyber-attacked Google and attempted to steal proprietary Google code. That pissed Google off, and the Obama Administration took advantage of the situation to goad Google into doing the "patriotic" thing, since Washington wanted to teach China a lesson anyway. So Google decided to do something on "principle" and pull out the censorship filters, and China has retaliated as expected.
Google gets to feel good about themselves, and noble, and Washington gets to smirk quietly that China just cut off its nose to spite its face, and We Showed Them, didn't we?
Nice summary. Gets right down to the nitty gritty.
So I guess that means my moral code is up for hire, that the question isn't whether I'm a whore but what's my price. Maybe I should do a Google search to find out what the market will bare....er.....bear......er.....whatever. What's the going price for my upstanding morality.
Do I hear $1 Billion? What's that you say mom? Too cheap?
Google is an Obama puppet, in my opinion. This was all too well coordinated with the push to revalue the yuan.
I don't trust Google with information any more than I trust anyone else. They've been exposed for censoring their own search boxes. And notice that the media never talk about the porn, which in practical terms may be an even larger concern for the Chinese government.
Google represents a potential WMD and so is very attractive asset for an acquisitive aggressive dominator to co-opt control of its ability to spy [datamine, listen/record,etc] and disrupt via pornography, disinformation, covert activity, etc.
How did the best and brightest spooks of TPTB not think of this years ago?
Not unrelated, recall Microsoft's dazzling monopoly success all by li'l ol' Bill Gates, who knew the internet was just a fad.
China is an obstacle to any plan for world domination and China knows it is the ultimate target.
History records attempts by Japan, England, Germany, USA, Netherlands, etc and so far all got indigestion for their colonial efforts.
LOL
Google has been caught stealing data from its competitor < From China (doh!)
Googles' business model is theft, all your info belong to us, they steal from publishers, content creators, competitors, they create nothing, catalog everything. I've always seen google as a potential hula hoop, it's a toy service that could fall out of favor very quickly. Anyone remember AltaVista?
Of course. Clearly AtaVista was the best place to have been from before Google came along. China's piracy will bite them in the ass for sure. They are growing a culture where no one has any axe in creating anything, and that is the poisoned intellectual environment to mirror the physical poison cloud in which they live.
Perhaps there will be one-time charges on multinationals. My take is China is not happy with the pressure coming from the Obama administration and surrogates like Krugman. Schmitt is another one with close ties to Obama and the Chinese see Google's move to operate without filters as another attack by Obama. This is not the trade war China wants, but one that Obama is pushing. He's pushing hard on Japan as well.
Yeah, and they are going to revalue the Yuan higher next month. LOL. They will revalue it....down.
Read the Chinese news carefully, they are now talking about removing the peg, not revaluing. This is the stick in the American eye, since they could let the market devalue the yuan while giving the finger to U.S. politicians.
Good news for the Chinese, the last thing they need is another surveillance operation.
Bruce Schneier, a well-known US cyber security expert, made waves in the IT community with an op-ed on CNN on January 23 [3] asserting that the e-mail hacker had obtained the e-mail information by accessing Google's own internal intercept system - a program designed to enable Google to collect user information in response to US government demands.
If this is the case, the e-mail hack is more of an embarrassment for Google than anything else: an indication that Google had not only created the application to enable governments to spy on e-mail accounts, it had done such a poor job of protecting it that it could be hijacked by malicious parties.
I also heard that the attacks were orchestrated by google employees in China.
War of attrition by Goog is possible in the near future as well. If only Maugoogle (baidu & co) gets some traction on the international arena, watch the google filing antycompetitive cases with the US & EU justice. Also watch out for everything "pro officially" chinese being gradually moved down to the bottom of the search.
At first I thought it was a smart PR stunt after Google had decided to give China the finger. However, the whole thing just looks like a stupid blunder now, not surprising after losing their top China guy late 09. Why else would they want US govt. support in this dispute is beyond me though. This does nothing but further confirms their role as spies in the paranoid CCP's eyes.
Market is getting to a three card monty status.
Gamling is going on in the casino, Captain Renault. Winner, winner, chicken dinner over here!
Google is just the tip of the ice berg, business is not business in china, they are corrupt people running china, probably more corrupt than our officials
especially a search company that is censerosed, how do you do business
this is just the begining
a trade war looms
Maybe it is good to remember that Google is an private company that is solely concerned about its bottom-line. Assigning any moral motive to Google is thus besides the point. This is not about free-speech in China.
** Edited for Content **
Looking forward to seeing what happens then the BRIC nations suddenly decide to short-squeeze gold and silver. I wonder if Paul Krugman's thought of that.
The alternative, of course, is that Krugman is perfectly aware of the metals market manipulation, and the whole trade war with China is being launched to invoke a Treasury withdrawal and precious metals short-squeeze on China's part, which will lead to a total financial collapse of the US and murder the federal government's finances so horrendously that it will finally give the feds an excuse to reduce our unsustainable entitlement programs without having to blame either party.
China has a right to their laws and regulations, and google knew those laws before they went there. We can't expect other countries to adopt our standards and if they do it is their choice. China is no more corrupt than the U.S. and probably less hypocritical.
This is a publicity stunt which turned out bad for GOOG. They are not the poster child for democracy.
Where do China's laws and regulations state that they can orchestrate sophisticated attacks against any company's computer systems?
Where in their laws say they can't? It's not like they debate their laws in public. Of course, it's not like they lie about the laws during debate either.
It is a one-party dictatorship. This is certainly covered under 'national security' somewhere.
http://chinesepolitics.blogspot.com/
Much like ours, only here some people wear blue glasses and some wear red ones. I like the fashion trend Hanky panky Paulson started with those pale green ties. The green tells you who he really obeys.
In 2006 Google reached an agreement with the Chinese government that gave it access to the enormous Chinese market if the company purged its Chinese search results of banned topics. But in January 2010, Google announced that it would stop cooperating with China's Internet censorship and consider shutting down its operations in the country altogether. It cited assaults from hackers on its computer systems and China's attempts to "limit free speech on the Web," as the reasons for its decision.
I found the missing link.
Here is their real concern. Profits.
Alan Davidson, director of public policy for Google, told a joint Congressional panel that the United States should consider withholding development aid for countries that restrict certain Web sites. He said censorship had become more than a human rights issue and was hurting profit for foreign companies that rely on the Internet to reach customers.
I wonder what happens if other businesses start setting up shop in neighboring south/south-east asian conutries? The labor costs are comparable to china and people waiting for opportunites.
This trade war can get interesting on many angles.
They will get attacked as well for being accessories to the crime.
I know it is hard to imagine, but there are people in China who have no idea what Google is and could not care less. Moreover, I do not think spontaneous acts of protest (ie riots), are coordinated by electronic communication. An angry mob is an angry mob. And an Chinese angry mob is even worse. If things ever unwound in China it would be the mobs not the internet running the command and control.
Are you an idiot?
Command and control is PRECISELY what the Internet enables from every conceivable measure. It is cheap, accessible, and due to it's nature very difficult to censor. It is particularly applicable in China where the only thing the cowardly-communists fear is their own populous.
You may be correct that many people don't know (but more likely don't care).
If the internet wasn't such a threat perhaps you could explain to me the NSA's "black boxes" at every Tier-I internet provider's regional aggregation location THROUGHOUT THE USA? (can you say war on terror??)
Perhaps you might also explain how churning YOUR personal information by entities like Google is such big business? Their clients - Law Enforcement.
Most internet buffoons have no idea what actually happens here in the states, let alone taking hip-shots at China.
The problem with that is that the NSA doesn't use those appliances in the way China uses them. Questioning the black boxes in China gets you killed and your body looted for organs. Questioning the NSA black boxes is by and large allowed without (major) consequence.
If it takes trade war to topple them (and show how weak they are), so be it and let it happen. Then make the same case to any other country outside the First World that it can happen to them as well. Diverting to other hellholes doesn't make the case any cleaner.
Where will I get my fortune cookies if we start a trade war with China?!
San Francisco, believe it or not. Fortune cookies are largely an American invention.
Oh I know. That was my poor attempt at humor or your poor attempt to get jokes. Either way...you're right~!
My nephew is a graduate student in Shangdo and uses Google extensively for his research. I told him people in America are on the side of the CCP/Chinese government in this Google/China showdown and he wouldn't believe me. Based on comments in this forum (I assume most of the posters are Americans) I think I'm right LOL.
I think the points we're making is that Google is really not pro-free speech. They censor who they want, when they want. Maybe they don't like other people calling the shots or maybe they have been instructed to assist in an anti-China campaign.
http://acrossthestreetnet.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/google-decides-to-be-evil-afterall/
It just doesn't smell right that now that we've borrowed so much from them and they're relucant to reward us for having zero fiscal discipline, we've got ideological grievances. I don't think many people buy that
NYT: Google’s search engine was apparently off limits for much of China late Tuesday, but the company said the problem was apparently a technical glitch of its own that caused searches to be blocked by China’s powerful Internet filter.
Oooooppps!
Thanks . Have to post it . Self sensorship or maybe Chinese are using mind control. Those crafty bastards.
But several hours after the problem became evident, Google issued a statement at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., that said: “Lots of users in China have been unable to search on Google.com.hk today. This blockage seems to have been triggered by a change on Google’s part.”
"This blockage seems to have been triggered by a change on Google’s part.”
LOL
Change of diet? Oh, I see. Mom always warned me of that. So the solution is a laxative? I prefer Ex Lax, maximum strength of course.
http://www.amazon.com/Ex-Lax-Stimulant-Laxative-Strength-90-Count/dp/B001G7QVJ0
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