64. Google censors China search engine

By Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press - January 25, 2006

SHANGHAI - Google Inc. launched a search engine in China on Wednesday that censors material about human rights, Tibet and other topics sensitive to Beijing. Google defended the move as a tradeoff granting Chinese greater access to other information. Within minutes of the launch of the new site bearing China's web suffix ".cn," searches for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement showed scores of sites omitted and users directed to articles condemning the group posted on Chinese government websites. Searches for other sensitive subjects such as exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, Taiwan independence, and terms such as ``democracy" and "human rights" yielded similar results. Google, which has as its motto Don't Be Evil, says the new site aims to make its search engine more accessible in China, thereby expanding access to information. Chinese Internet users said Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc.'s move was inevitable given Beijing's restrictions on the Internet, which the government promotes for commerce but heavily censors for content deemed offensive or subversive. "Google has no choice but to give up to the Party," said one posting on the popular information technology website PCONLINE, signed simply "AS." Google's move was prompted by frequent disruptions of the Chinese-language version of its search engine registered under the company's dot-com address in the United States. Government filtering has blocked access or created lengthy delays in response time. Google's senior policy counsel Andrew McLaughlin defended the new site as better serving Chinese customers. "In deciding how best to approach the Chinese - or any - market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interests of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions," McLaughlin said in an e-mailed statement. "While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission," he said. Google hopes the move will shore up its competitiveness against both foreign competitors such as Yahoo and domestic ones like Baidu.com Inc., a Beijing-based company in which Google owns a 2.6 percent stake. Baidu.com is currently China's most popular search engine. China has more than 100 million web surfers and the audience is expected to swell.