Hating things is not new….. and there is better things to hate on than a search engine. No matter what Google decides to do from this point on, there is always gonna be some pissy dweeb bagging Google on their blog. It’s old… get over it.

PS: starcraft II *drools*

I applaud the effort.

@Anon #14: Yes, we all know it’s a popular tack to equivocate the US and China’s records on censorship and human rights. But you said it yourself – varying degrees. If you think the level of net censorship in the US is bad, try living in cyber-China for awhile and try to tell me it’s an even remotely similar experience.

They are calling China’s bluff. As a matter of rule of law they can operate (more) freely. If the Chinese central government decides to crack down there it will expose its capriciousness.

I think it is a fine move. They can no longer operate freely in China proper so they exploit the special status of Hong Kong and if/when that falls apart because of the government they will have exhausted their options. Sometimes when faced with complete autocracy all you can do is expose it plainly. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a shining example of what that simple act can do.

What we’re seeing here is yet another company that is tired of the Chinese government & Chinese companies’ poor treatment of foreign business & foreign business partners.

There was Huawei back in 2003, ripping off their business partner Cisco wholesale > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei#Criticisms_and_controversy

More recently there was the Chinese Government’s arrest of Rio Tinto employees because they were all butthurt about their state-owned metals company’s bid being rejected > http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-business23-2010mar23,0,5835113.story
(which makes their statement “We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts” deliciously hypocritical > http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-03/23/c_13220853.htm )

As an expat living in China, I’m pretty excited to see such a big player leave – the more that the Chinese government is shown that it can’t continue to act like a spoiled child on the international stage, the more likely it is that things will change.

This is just absolutely wrong: First, that Google states what it is doing is entirely legal. Second, that it clearly doesn’t know if this is entirely legal, as it has “hope” the Chinese government “respects” the move. If it’s entirely legal, then Google shouldn’t need to be hoping.

The second bolded point doesn’t say anything about the legality of their move – it merely says that they hope China’s government doesn’t move to censor google.com.hk

Sullivan is obviously just a google-hating troll. *Yawn*

But… the legal issue is that by providing an uncensored feed (or whatever the Chinese gov’t calls it) Google is breaking the law. Agree or not, you don’t want to be liable for prosecution in China.

That’s what the author is essentially proposing they do in order to make the claim’s they are – and to be utterly truthful in them, at least.

This is Google calling out their need to censor if they host on mainland China, and saying they find it unacceptable. It’s a big company, and that stands for something. It’s not like any other corporation with money to be made in China has made a similar call, or at least not many. Credit where credit is due – it’s something in a landscape of compliance by most.

By hosting the service in Hong Kong – which it always has, for HK residents – and directing Chinese users there, Google aren’t technically breaking Chinese law.

They have blocked YouTube, Sites and Blogger and partially blocked other Google services. List is here: http://www.google.com/prc/report.html#hl=en