Google and China, breaking up on April 10

It's been too long since I've had something to share. I'd like to point out a recent event that touches the arenas of privacy, freedom of speech,  and intellectual freedom. Oh, there's a business aspect to all of this too.

I'm hoping you've heard the recent news about tension between Google and China.
If not, here are some articles, blog posts, and reports to glance at:
Google to leave China on April 10-cnet.com 3/18/10
Google's Quixotic China Challenge-BusinessWeek 3/24/10
A new approach to China: an update-Google blog 3/22/10 
Google Stops Censoring Search Results in China-BBC News 3/22/10
US-China Economic and Security Review Commission Annual Report 2009-this report is quite large, see Chapter 4, China's Media and Information Controls-The Impact in China and the United States

Basically, Google (among other companies) was the victim of a "sophisticated cyber attack". Google believed that part of this attack was an attempt by the Chinese government to get at the gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The Chinese government has denied any involvement. China also routinely requires search engines to censor search results on terms like Tiananmen Square and the Dalai Lama. ( note that, in China, sites such as Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter are also blocked.)


I'm making this sound fairly easy-to-understand. But it's just not that simple. China is a massive market. At the risk of sound extremely simple, I'll say this-the Chinese government demands information be presented (or not presented) in a certain way. Any western company will have to deal with this. Even though Google may rule search in many places, it doesn't in China. Google has a very small percentage of the search market there. The search engine Baidu is much more popular.

I was actually in China when all of this was happening. It was interesting to see the news reports (they were in Chinese, which I don't speak) on this. People were leaving flowers on the Google sign at the headquarters. While I was there, I was able to access my gmail account. I can confirm that facebook and Youtube are blocked.