This gets more and more interesting.
So now, Google had re-route its China’s site to its Hong Kong site.
Personally, I see it as an unglamorous move when not so long ago, the search engine giant just mentioned that they will be moving out of China with a high possibility 99.9%. So now they played with their words and escaped to Hong Kong. Smart move? I don’t think so.
At the initial stage of this thorny issue, China opened the door to them – saying that a horse that turns back for greener pasture is a clever horse ( as contradictory to the common Chinese idiom that a good horse doesn’t turn back for greener pasture)
Google didn’t buy that and exclaimed that high chances they will be leaving. By declaring that they are leaving China, I believed was Google’s game of testing the depth of the water (meaning the limits of the Chinese govt). Of course the authorities would not be held to ransom and Google are stuck with their own words, they couldn’t take them back.
One thing that all of us can agree on is definitely China is too huge a market to ignore. And I believed Google surely knows this. Deep in their heart, they knew they had to stay. But to stay without giving out a signal of resistance or fight back China, would infer that they are giving in and being bullied and that means weak. The scenario is Chinese hackers are already stealing codes from them, with the govt closing one eye. How can Google accept that? Google knew they had to fight back.
The search engine giant did not want to comply to their censorship laws. They want to implement an uncensored google site for China, and this I believed is their way of fighting back. Imagine exposing China’s sensitive information – for example the Tiananmen Incident to its own people, China would definitely be angry. Google’s uncensored website for China is their “revenge”.
China definitely was not pleased. They insisted that Google obey the internet laws in the country.
Google says its either an uncensored version of google.com.cn or they are leaving. Chinese authorities of course will not buy that.
Here comes the critically part. Now, Google couldn’t take their words back. This time, I really thought Google was leaving for real.
But very unexpectedly, Google played their words smartly and “within the internet geographically” they really left. They moved from .cn to .hk. It’s amusing but I believed Google is buying time.
By moving to Hong Kong, the ball is now in China’s court. There are 2 ways China could reply.
One is to close one eye - allowing Google to stay there with an uncensored HK Google site.
Second is to show their authority, and censor the Hong Kong Google site as well. But this could invoke protests from the Hong Kong netizens who are not afraid to show their dislike and make their frustrations known. And who knows they might really get to gain sympathy votes from the Hong Kong netizens who could support them with a protest? If it happens, Google could use the people’s voices against the government, which I believed they might if there’s any strong voices.
But at this point of time, Google.hk is already censored.
The ball is now back in Google’s court. Let’s see how they proceed. It’s a huge dilemma, but one thing I know for sure, is actually Google don’t want to leave at all.
