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TRADE WARS
Google Says China Top Priority As GoDaddy Joins Exodus

China state media blasts Google for 'huge' mistake
Beijing (AFP) March 24, 2010 - China's state media on Wednesday belittled Google's decision to effectively shut down its Chinese search engine, saying the Internet firm had made a huge mistake in the world's largest online market. The newspapers said the company would earn little sympathy from loyal users in China, as it had turned its dispute with Beijing over government web censorship and cyberattacks into a political issue. Google on Monday stopped filtering search results in China and re-routed traffic from google.cn to an uncensored site in Hong Kong, but said it would maintain its sales and research and development teams on the mainland. "With its action to shift its search service from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong yesterday, the world's top search engine has made a huge strategic misstep in the promising Chinese market," the Global Times said. The paper touted the improvement in China's business climate and warned foreign firms that they could face "unprecedented" competition from homegrown companies, urging them to adapt to the "transitional Chinese society". "A win-win situation is in the interests of both China and foreign businesses. Google's 'new approach' does not work," it said in a commentary.

Beijing has repeatedly said foreign businesses are welcome as long as they abide by Chinese law. Google says its shift of search traffic to google.com.hk is "entirely legal", as Hong Kong is not subject to mainland censorship laws. The China Daily relished the "moment of peace" created by Google's decision, two months after the eruption of the dispute, which has added to strains in relations between China and the United States. "Google's efforts to make this issue into a political spat have naturally met with strong opposition and criticism from the Chinese government and society," the English-language newspaper wrote in a commentary. "With the company's credibility among Chinese netizens now plummeting, Google will be greeted with less sympathy and fewer parting sentiments from Chinese Internet users," it said. The paper slammed Google for offering China's 384 million web users access to "pornography and subversive content", saying the Chinese web would "continue to grow in a cleaner and more peaceful environment" without google.cn.
by Staff Writers
London (AFP) March 24, 2010
Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in an interview published Wednesday that Chinese regulations which prevent the Web giant from being competitive in China should be considered a "trade barrier."

Brin, in comments published by the British newspaper The Guardian, said human rights issues should be given "equal time" with trade concerns and the US administration should make the censorship row with China a "high priority."

China has attacked Google for stopping censorship of its Chinese-language search engine but said there should be no broader fall-out in Sino-US ties provided the issue is not politicized in the United States.

Google announced Monday it would no longer filter results on China-based Google.cn and was redirecting mainland Chinese users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong -- effectively closing down the mainland site.

Brin urged pressure from government and businesses on Beijing over the row.

"I certainly hope they make it a high priority," he told the newspaper. "Human rights issues deserve equal time to the trade issues that are high priority now -- I hope this gets taken seriously."

He added that issues of trade and censorship were closely linked.

"Since services and information are our most successful exports, if regulations in China effectively prevent us from being competitive, then they are a trade barrier," Brin said.

Brin's remarks coincided with a hearing to be hosted in Washington on Wednesday by the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China on "Google and Internet Control in China: A Nexus Between Human Rights and Trade?"

The Google co-founder also accused arch-rival Microsoft of exploiting the row to score points against his California-based firm.

"I'm very disappointed for them in particular," he said. "As I understand, they have effectively no market share -- so they essentially spoke against freedom of speech and human rights simply in order to contradict Google."

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published online on Wednesday, Brin discussed some of the reasons for Google's dramatic move, telling the newspaper China was increasingly reminding him of his native Soviet Union.

The 36-year-old Brin's parents fled the Soviet Union when he was six years old to escape anti-Semitism and other repression.

China has "made great strides against poverty and whatnot," Brin said.

"But nevertheless, in some aspects of their policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents, I see the same earmarks of totalitarianism, and I find that personally quite troubling."

Brin said cyberattacks on Google late last year originating in China were the "straw that broke the camel's back."

"Ultimately I guess it is where your threshold of discomfort is," Brin said. "So we obviously as a company crossed that threshold of discomfort."

Brin told the newspaper that Google is reviewing its other businesses in China, including maps and its music search service.

"We have stepped into a new world and will be looking at all the services," he said.

He expressed hope that China would eventually allow a more open Web.

"I certainly hope that the long-term solution is the liberalization of the Internet in mainland China," Brin said.

earlier related report
After Google, another US Web firm cuts back in China
Washington (AFP) March 24, 2010 - Two days after Google halted censorship in China, another leading US Internet company, Go Daddy, said Wednesday it was cutting back on its activities there because of Chinese regulations.

Go Daddy, the largest Web domain name registrar in the world, is no longer registering names in China because of "chilling" new requirements imposed by the Chinese authorities, executive vice president Christine Jones said.

Jones also told a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China here that Go Daddy was one of the companies hit by Chinese-based cyberattacks in December that contributed to Google's decision to stop self censorship there.

Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, praised Google and Go Daddy for "doing the right thing in China" and urged other US companies, specifically Microsoft, to follow their lead.

"Google fired a shot heard 'round the world, and now a second American company has answered the call to defend the rights of the Chinese people," Smith said.

Google announced Monday that it had effectively closed its Chinese-language search engine in China, Google.cn, and begun redirecting mainland Chinese users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong.

Speaking at the same congressional hearing, Alan Davidson, Google's director of public policy, said the Hong Kong site is already being censored.

"We are well aware that the Chinese government can, at any time, block access to our services -- indeed we have already seen intermittent censorship of certain search queries on both Google.com.hk and Google.com," he said.

Davidson also echoed a call made by Google co-founder Sergey Brin for new rules and agreements to govern trade in the online world.

Brin said in an interview published Wednesday in the British newspaper The Guardian that Chinese regulations that prevent companies from being competitive in China should be considered a "trade barrier."

"Since services and information are our most successful exports, if regulations in China effectively prevent us from being competitive, then they are a trade barrier," Brin said.

Davidson said governments "need to develop a full set of new trade rules to address new trade barriers.

"We should continue to look for effective ways to address unfair foreign trade barriers in the online world: to use trade agreements, trade tools, and trade diplomacy to promote the free flow of information on the Internet."

Brin and Davidson's comments came after TOM Online, the Internet company owned by Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, severed ties with Google, sparking concerns other companies may also pull away from the Web giant.

TOM, which runs online and mobile Internet services in mainland China, said that "as a Chinese company, we adhere to rules and regulations in China where we operate our businesses."

China has attacked Google for stopping censorship but said there should be no broader fall-out in Sino-US ties provided the issue is not politicized in the United States.

Go Daddy's Jones said the company has been authorized since April 2005 by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) to offer registration services for .cn domain names.

The .cn suffix is a Top Level Domain for China like .com and individuals or companies seeking to create a Web address are required to go through a registrar such as Go Daddy, which has 40 million domain names under management.

Jones said Go Daddy has been required by the CNNIC to collect the contact information of the individual or company registering a domain name including their full name, address, telephone number and email address.

Four months ago, however, CNNIC required registrants of new .cn names to provide color headshot photos, a Chinese business registration number and signed registration forms, she said.

She said Go Daddy is "concerned for the security of the individuals affected by CNNIC's new requirements, as well as for the chilling effect we believe the requirements will have on new .cn domain name registrations.

"For these reasons, we have decided to discontinue offering new .cn domain names at this time," Jones said. "We just made a decision that we didn't want to act as an agent of the Chinese government."

Jones also said that Go Daddy was one of more than 30 companies hit by the cyberattacks in December that Google said originated in China. "We've had a couple of dozen since the first of the year as well," Jones said.

"The Google attack was aimed at infiltrating email accounts," she said. "The attack on our system is designed to disable websites somebody doesn't like."



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