China strikes back after Google shuts site

As Google began redirecting millions of Chinese users on Tuesday to its uncensored website in Hong Kong,the companys remaining mainland operations came under pressure from...

As Google began redirecting millions of Chinese users on Tuesday to its uncensored website in Hong Kong,the companys remaining mainland operations came under pressure from its Chinese partners and from the government itself.

Mainland Chinese users on Tuesday could not see uncensored Hong Kong content because government computers had either disabled searches for objectionable content completely or blocked links to certain results.

Beijing officials were clearly angered on Tuesday by Googles decision to close its Internet search service in China and redirect users to the Hong Kong site,a sign of possible escalation in the dispute.

Chinas biggest cellular firm,China Mobile,was expected to cancel a deal that placed Googles search engine on its mobile Internet home page. Similarly,Chinas second-largest mobile company,China Unicom,was said to have delayed or killed the introduction of a cellphone based on Googles Android platform. One Internet portal,Tom.com,already ceased using Google to power its search engine.

Technology analysts and the business executives,who demanded anonymity,said that Google might also face problems in keeping its advertising sales force,which is crucial to the success of its Chinese language service. As of Tuesday,users who go to google.cn are automatically being sent to the Hong Kong address,google.com.hk.

The two sides had been at loggerheads since January,when Google said it would end voluntary censorship of its China-based search service in response to attacks by Chinese hackers on its e-mail service and corporate database. Two months of talks failed to bridge the divide between Google and the Chinese government,which insists that its citizens access to the Internet be stripped of offensive and some politically sensitive material.

The government denounced Google on Tuesday,calling its decision wrong. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman,Qin Gang,said in Beijing that Googles move was an isolated act,and that it should not affect China-US ties unless politicised. Whether to stay or leave it is Googles own business. If it decides to stay it has to abide by Chinas laws and regulations, Qin said.

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Google executives decided by Monday evening to keep the firms non-search business operations on mainland China intact. Google China employees were still going to work at the headquarters in Beijing on Tuesday. Googles license to publish material on the Internet,a requirement in China,is to expire in a few weeks. If it is not renewed,features still running on Googles .cn address,including music and maps,may be displaced as well.