Time to call it a day
On Friday we brought you the news that the Chinese government had publicly warned Google to obey its rule or "...pay the consequences." Over the weekend, ft.com and wsj.com have both spoken to inside sources who reckon Google is close to closing down the Chinese version of its search engine - google.cn.
This reason for this move is the insistence from the Chinese state that Google censor its search results. Google has been doing this since it launched google.cn in 2006, but after the cyber attacks last December that originated in China, Google announced it wasn't prepared to censor its search results anymore and would close down the site if necessary.
Since then Google has been trying to negotiate with the Chinese government about ways in which it can offer unfiltered search results, but still stay within Chinese law. It seems there isn't a way, so that leaves only one alternative.
The FT reckons this is 99.9 percent likely to happen, while the WSJ adds that, if it does happen, Chinese news sites have been ordered to only publish accounts of the development from ‘official' sources.
We don't know how easy it is to access the whole Internet in China, but with China involved in so much more international trade these days, surely its government is fighting a losing battle if it expects to prevent its people from getting hold of information if they want it.
