A new approach to China: an update
[文章作者：Google黑板报 最后修改：2010-07-20 转载请注明原文链接：http://littz.com/a-new-approach-to-china-an-update.html]
On January 12, we announced on this blog
that Google and more than twenty other U.S. companies had been the
victims of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China, and
that during our investigation into these attacks we had uncovered
evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights
activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third
parties, most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on their
computers. We also made clear that these attacks and the surveillance
they uncovered—combined with attempts over the last year to further
limit free speech on the web in China including the persistent blocking
of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and
Blogger—had led us to conclude that we could no longer continue
censoring our results on Google.cn.
So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google
Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting
Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk,
where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese,
specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our
servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their
existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from Google.com.hk.
Due to the increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated
nature of these changes, users may see some slowdown in service or find
some products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over.
Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search
on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as
possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland
China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our
discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.
We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in
simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk
is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced—it’s entirely
legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people
in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our
decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block
access to our services. We will therefore be carefully monitoring
access issues, and have created this new web page, which we will update regularly each day, so that everyone can see which Google services are available in China.
In terms of Google’s wider business operations, we intend to continue
R&D work in China and also to maintain a sales presence there,
though the size of the sales team will obviously be partially dependent
on the ability of mainland Chinese users to access Google.com.hk.
Finally, we would like to make clear that all these decisions have been
driven and implemented by our executives in the United States, and that
none of our employees in China can, or should, be held responsible for
them. Despite all the uncertainty and difficulties they have faced
since we made our announcement in January, they have continued to focus
on serving our Chinese users and customers. We are immensely proud of
them.