Google said yesterday it remained in talks with the Chinese government about censorship of its Chinese-language search portal, despite mounting signs the company could soon shut the site.
Google Inc, the world’s biggest search engine, has been in a two-month standoff with Beijing over restrictions on the Internet and Google’s claims that it and other companies were hit by hacking from within China.
The company’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said last week he hoped to announce an outcome soon from talks with Chinese officials on offering an uncensored search engine in a country of 384 million Internet users.
Many experts have doubted the Chinese Communist Party would compromise on censorship, and on the weekend the Financial Times reported the talks had reached an impasse and Google was “99.9 percent” certain to shut its Chinese search engine, Google.cn.
“Our forecast has always remained firm that once Google announced it would not accept censorship, then it was nearly impossible to imagine a scenario either where Google didn’t act on that or the government accepted their position,” Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, told reporters.
Marbridge Consulting is a Beijing-based company that advises on China’s IT and telecommunications sectors.
A Google spokesperson said yesterday talks with Chinese authorities had not ended, but added that the company was adamant about not accepting self-censorship.
“We’ve been very clear that we are no longer going to self-censor our search results,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson commented on condition of anonymity, citing company policy.
“We are in active discussions with the Chinese government, but we are not going to engage in a running commentary about those conversations,” the spokesperson said.
Foreign news reports and China’s own state-run media, however, have reflected growing signs that Google could soon acknowledge that its effort to free up its Chinese Web site faces a deadlock and the company will prepare to shut it down.
A critical commentary on the Web site of Xinhua news agency appeared to assume that Google’s pull-back was a certainty.
“The planet won’t stop spinning because Google leaves, and Chinese Internet users will still remain online without Google,” the Chinese-language comment issued on Sunday said. “In the past, China’s Internet developed very well without Google, and we can be sure that in the future, it will also develop in the same healthy way without Google.”
The New York Times reported yesterday that Google’s online partners in China had received a government notice on what to do if censoring stops, warning them not to follow the US firm’s example.
China obliges Internet operators to block words and images the Chinese Communist Party deems unacceptable.
Internationally popular Web sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are entirely blocked in China, which uses a filtering “firewall” to block Internet users from other overseas Web site content banned by authorities.
Google is likely to move in careful steps intended to minimize any risks and disruption to its staff and continued activities in China, Natkin said.
“Google is very sensitive to protecting its people, and making decisions in a way that will limit the impact on them,” he said.
The head of a research firm in Beijing, whose company is working with Google on a project, told reporters it was likely a Google research and development team will stay in China.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station