Google vs. China

Google versus China

On paper, when Google China opened in 2005, it made perfect sense. The world's largest internet search facility starting operations in the world's largest internet market. But there was always going to be problems.

Google's success relies heavily on the users freedom to search for whatever they like, and in turn companies pay Google millions of dollars for the privilege of having billions of eyes looking at there brand.

But in China, a communist state heavily weighed down by excessive government censorship across all communication mediums, especially the internet, Google effectively had their wings clipped. Prior to the formation of Google China, Google.com itself was accessible around 90 percent of the time, but a number of its services were not accessible due to censorship.

Since announcing that it would comply with internet censorship laws in the People's Republic of China, Google China has succumbed to the Great Firewall of China (officially known as the "Golden Shield Project") establishing self-imposed censorship that has led to much controversy and widespread criticism of the internet search giant.

Last year the firm's YouTube site was blocked by the Chinese government for at least three days after Tibet's government-in-exile released a video on March 20 that it said showed Chinese police beating protesters.

Head-to-head conflict

But now recent news suggests Google Inc. are in the midst of a head-to-head conflict with the Chinese government and are even said to be considering pulling the plug on its website in the communist state, after discovering a "highly sophisticated" attack last month aimed at gaining access to e-mail accounts of human-rights activists.

For companies like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google itself, censorship has always been conceded as the "price to pay" for doing business in China, but the latest events have provoked the California-based tech giant into drawing the line.

For Google to even contemplate taking such drastic measures the attack must have been "large in scope and very penetrating," James Mulvenon an expert on Chinese cyberwarfare capabilities told the New York Times. China's internet audience has already climbed from 10 million to nearly 340 million in the past decade, of which Google are thought to have over a 30 percent share.

China's lack of free speech

Google said the attack itself is said to have targeted at least 20 other large companies in industries such as finance, technology, media and chemicals. The company also said it plans to stop censoring results on its Google.cn site and hold talks with Chinese authorities.

Google said the sophisticated attack, which occurred in the middle of December, originated in China and resulted in intellectual property being stolen from the company.

Google said two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed as part of the attack. The information gathered was limited to account information, such as the date the account was created, as well as the subject lines of e-mails, Google said. The contents of e-mails were not exposed.

Can Google ever return to China?

The company added that dozens of Gmail accounts owned by advocates of human rights in the US, China and Europe were also accessed through phishing scams or malware.

In a statement Google said: "We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

Although the company are a "long way from getting out of China" according to FBR Capital Markets, it does signal that Google may be ready to follow its own "Don't be evil" motto a little more closely.

But a move out of China, although being ethically admirable, may be a significant business risk due to the fact that with Google gone, Baidu can swallow up the free business, giving it a potential 90 percent internet market share.

This will make it extremely difficult for Google ever to return to China.

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