Google Pulls Out of China

In March, The World Bank raised its 2010 economic growth forecast for China to 9.5% from 9%. It said consumption by both businesses and households would grow strongly, even though government stimulus measures were being pared back. In 2010 China is expected to replace Japan as the world's second-largest economy, and Germany as the world's biggest exporter. For some foreigners, it may be tempting to think that China is no longer a developing nation, or has even become a superpower.

However, their growing global status has taken a knock recently as one of the world's most prominent corporations is saying it is no longer willing to co-operate in China's censorship of the internet. Google have effectively shut their mainland Chinese search service, google.cn, striking a major blow to China's international image. The US giant is redirecting users in mainland China to its unrestricted Hong Kong site, although Chinese firewalls mean results still come back censored.

Google have actually threatened to leave the Chinese market completely this year after cyber attacks were traced back to China. Whereas China has moved to further limit free speech on the web as Google's own websites and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists have recently come under cyber attack.

China has said Google's move to stop censoring search results is "totally wrong" and accused it of breaking a promise made when it launched in China.

Chen Yafei, a Chinese information technology specialist, told Reuters that Google should have accepted Chinese regulation if it wanted to operate in the country.

"Any company entering China should abide by Chinese laws..." he said.
"Chinese internet users will have no regrets if Google withdraws."

While Google is the world's most popular search engine, it is a distant number two in the Chinese market, which is dominated by Baidu. However, because of the size and growth rate of China's internet population, any loss of business there is likely to harm Google's future growth prospects.

Beijing said the decision should not affect ties with Washington. The White House responded by saying that it was "disappointed" that Google and China had not been able to resolve their differences.