Google Reported Ready To Leave China April 10

A number of readers including tsj5j and bruleriestdenis wrote to alert us to this CNET story: "Google is expected to announce on Monday that it will withdraw from China on April 10, according to a report in a Beijing-based newspaper that cited an unidentified sales associate who works with the company. 'I have received information saying that Google will leave China on April 10, but this information has not at present been confirmed by Google,' the China Business News quoted the agent as saying. The report also said Google would reveal its plans for its China-based staff that day."

Re:The source is a salesperson

[TSchut]

Well, if the salesperson is working in China it would be nice for him/her to know he's losing his job on April 10th.

Re:What does it mean to "leave"?

[WrongSizeGlass]

But they will be blocked in China. Remember the motto of the Chinese DNS servers: All your search are belong to us.

Re:The source is a salesperson

[Anonymous Coward]

The sales department sometimes need to know things before other departments. Pushing hard to secure a large deal with an influential customer, only for head office to announce the product is canceled the next day, tends to make your organisation look like a bit of a goose.

Re:hmm...

[Ryvar]

I'm a bit worried about workers in China regardless of who they work for.

--Ryvar

Re:The source is a salesperson

[SoopahMan]

This is at least somewhat irresponsible journalism. I mean, obviously Google needs time to consider first, how to deal with China, and second if it comes to it, how to handle it adequately. They should have the opportunity to plan and deliver the bad news themselves rather than some kneejerk reporter trying to make a name for themselves. Imagine how depressing this must be for Google China employees.

Screw you, CNet.

Google's No Freedom Fighter

[rutabagaman]

Google didn't come to this decision because they found their moral compass all of a sudden--otherwise they wouldn't have agreed to play censor for the government in the first place. Like any corporation they were attracted to China by the money and the audience, but after finding out the government was all too willing to help Baidu and hinder Google they re-evaluated their decision. The cyber attack may have been the breaking point, but it may just as well have been a convenient event for Google to justify their standoff with the government.

Re:The source is a salesperson

[Loconut1389]

intentional potentially deniable leak to test the waters?

Re:What does it mean to "leave"?

[Sir_Lewk]

Being physically located in China or not has nothing to do with China blocking them. China could block them if they kept up shop in China, or they could not block them even though they no longer have employees in China.

By removing themselves physically from China they might risk upsetting China (so that they are blocked) but that is not a certainty, and they ensure the physical safety of their employees.

Old Quote

[MrTripps]

Remember that old quote about how the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routs around it? That doesn't apply anymore.

Re:Google's No Freedom Fighter

[Abcd1234]

Google didn't come to this decision because they found their moral compass all of a sudden--otherwise they wouldn't have agreed to play censor for the government in the first place.

Alternatively, like any individual or group, they may have felt, at the time, that they could do some good by operating in China, and then realized, in retrospect, that that simply wasn't the case.

But you're right. It makes way more sense to ascribe sinister, greedy motivations to them. No company can possibly make a mistake...

Sure it is

[Anonymous Coward]

Google didn't come to this decision because they found their moral compass all of a sudden--otherwise they wouldn't have agreed to play censor for the government in the first place. Like any corporation they were attracted to China by the money and the audience, but after finding out the government was all too willing to help Baidu and hinder Google they re-evaluated their decision. The cyber attack may have been the breaking point, but it may just as well have been a convenient event for Google to justify their standoff with the government.

So Google's motives are not altruistic. So what? Lots of "freedom fighters" aren't motivated by an altruistic desire to oppose tyranny and promote liberty wherever they can. They're motivated because their toes were stepped on and they want to fight back.

It's pretty rare that anyone deliberately goes and gets involved in a Freedom Fight that they have no stake in. That doesn't mean they're not justified in doing so.

Re:Google's No Freedom Fighter

[nedlohs]

He was saying they made a mistake, they thought something would be profitable, but it turns out it wasn't worth the effort.

There was no sinister greedy motivations ascribed. Just usual business decisions.

Re:Google's No Freedom Fighter

[rutabagaman]

It's less about greed on Google's part and more about the usual cost-benefit analysis of doing business with China's repressive government. Google just stayed until the disadvantages outweighed the benefits.

Re:hmm...

[CherniyVolk]

Are you also against inter-state trade? Why not? If trade between 2 ppl in different countries is bad (that is what globalization is), why is trade between 2 ppl in 2 different state here is ok?

Did you not notice you used the word "trade"? Did you not actually "trade" with your friends as a child? Google opening shop in China is in no way "trade", not even similar concept no matter how you look at it.

How weird it must be, instead of saying "Hey John, I'll trade you my apple for your fruit cup." with "Hey John, let me live with you in your room, under governance of your mom and dad so I can get a fruit cup too. Alice, Bob, Jack and I will form a committee to arbitrate a 'agreement' between us, so you have to let me live in your house with you. Oh, and btw, I don't agree with your posters on the wall, you have to change them from Porsche's to Lamborghini's and that super model chick you have has mutilated her body which is against my principles so we'll have to bring legal action against you and question your compliance to the way I think things should be."

Re:hmm...

[Vendetta]

Unfortunately, the Chinese government already has free reign to do what they want, which is exactly why Google is leaving. I don't see it as a catch-22. China isn't going to let Google offer the services in the way that they (Google) want them to be provided. China has already made it clear that Google needs to comply with China's laws, so Google isn't going to be able to offer unfiltered search results and such. So what's the point of them staying if they are forever forced by the government to play by China's rules, and by staying they make themselves look worse in the eyes of the Western world?

Re:The source is a salesperson

[Random BedHead Ed]

The sales department sometimes need to know things before other departments.

I've seen this before. Management is obviously the first to know, and the first department that Management tells is Sales, followed by HR (since HR needs to plan the transition). Marketing finds out next because a guy from HR wants an excuse to talk to all the hot chicks at once, and this news provides that excuse. The information then gradually trickles down through the other departments in a largely uncontrolled way. Finally it occurs to someone to tell IT. "We need to fail over your servers to another country this afternoon because the office is closing. Sorry, should have mentioned it in January. That won't be a problem, will it?"

No, that doesn't make any sense.

[mosb1000]

Internet search engines are a product, which Google was selling in China. It is trade, and it's nothing like what you've said here. Google has said they won't modify their product to meet China's requirements, China has said "fine, then we don't want 'em" so Google is leaving. Google hasn't done anything wrong, nor have they done anything like what you've described.