Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Google

At first, it actually didn't occur to me to write about this. Mainly because in terms of web surfing nothing's really changed.

This week, Google decided to shut down it's China website, signaling a "retreat" from the country. Instead, all of the company's Internet traffic is rerouted to its Hong Kong website, where search results are not subject to censorship.

In response, the Chinese government has very quickly clamped down, censoring Google search results through its own web filters. (When I search for "Tiananmen Square Massacre" I get an error.)

I've just returned from Taiwan, where I had the freedom to browse whatever I wanted to. But now I've come back to the mainland, where Facebook, and even my friends' blogs are blocked (Sorry Wednesday Weekly and I know, right? but China does not like blogger).

So I have to give a big thumbs up for Google's symbolic stand. Just in class this week, one of our teachers asked who is Google's main business competitor. The answer she was looking for was Baidu, the most popular search engine used on the mainland. But a few classmates and I couldn't help but say to ourselves that the Chinese government was Google's real competitor. I just hope the government doesn't eventually decide to completely block Google's website, in the same fashion it did to Youtube and Twitter.

Not like the censorship really matters. Internet users in China have always found ways around the Great Firewall, whether through free or paid programs. This week I decided to pay for a stable proxy service. I feel somewhat ridiculous in buying it; essentially I'm planting down money so I can log on to my Facebook account. But in China, freedom is not exactly the country's strong suit.

(Above is a picture of Google's sign outside it's Beijing headquarters. Earlier this week, people were placing flowers and chocolates on the display in response to Google's departure.)