Google China staff returned to work
By Rich Spy on Jan 19, 2010 with Comments 3
Yesterday, reporter learned from the head of Google China’s media office that Google China did let their employees on leave last week, but now all employees have returned to work properly.
Yesterday, the domestic Internet media quoted Agence France-Presse’s reports that Google Inc. who admitted to give the staff of Google China a long leave, while Google China’s Intranet test was in test. But at this moment its Intranet test has been completed, now google China’s business returned to normal operation.
China’s PR manager WANG Jin-hong said Google China did temporary shut down its Intranet and the global database and give their staff to take 1 day off because of Intranet test, but the staff came back to work after the Thursday, and the Intranet and the global database has also been restored to normal. She stressed that the Intranet gateway stopping and staff on vacation has nothing to do with Google may quit China or not, nor did Google China’s staff has been on holiday on a large scale, now everything is working correctly.
Yesterday evening, head of Google China, Liu Yun and Yang Wenluo said at the official Google blog: In the past few days, there were many hearsay about Google China and its Chinese staff, some even reported that we have closed the office in China, there are some reports said that our employees in China have been noticed to leave. These are all untrue.
China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ma Chaoxu said at a regular press conference yesterday: China’s Internet is open, and it is managed according to law, the Chinese law strictly prohibits any form of hacking attacks,“The foreign companies in China should respect the host country laws, the public interest, culture and traditions, and shoulder the social responsibility.”
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I think it’s important to recognize the competing philosophies here and how they may play out in the future as China becomes more important in the digital landscape.
By standing up to China, Google is stating it’s opinion on the internet which is that it does not live in any physical location and thereby cannot be subject to local laws. China, obviously, feels differently and feels that the internet accessed in their country is subject to all local laws.
The implications of this will be seen dramatically as Baidu (already one of the most visited sites on the web) expands. A move like this from Google sends a signal to the rest of the world. Google will not compromise its values. Baidu, however, is in the pocket of the Chinese government. As these two companies grow and start to compete in more than just search in China, we may look back and view this move by Google as very strategic and not made purely on ethical grounds.
Sometimes we are very naive in our approaches to regimes like China – Let’s go with what they tell us and change things from the Inside! Guess what? Never happens! The Chinese just seem to be shrugging their shoulders and saying “whatever!”. To think that Google leaving China would somehow affect them more than Google is just wishful thinking! Like air rushing into a vacuum – many Chinese search companies will fill the void!
If you have principles, you need to hold them up right from the beginning, not just when your thief friend proves to be a thief , after all, not the person you were hoping to change him into, forever!
There’s no doubt this move was not made purely on ethical grounds — that’s only the marketing portion of the move. If Google really felt that way they wouldn’t have played ball from the beginning.
And there really wasn’t much real risk for Google here. They were far behind Baidu and weren’t generating profits in China that were material to their financials, so they have little downside and very high upside from their standing in the Western world. What Google may have to worry about in China is a merger between Baidu and Microsoft, rebranded as Baidu-Bing (rimshot sound effect). Who wouldn’t want to search on that site?
What does worry me relates to Ely’s note about Google not thinking it has to abide by China’s rules because they’re delivering content over the Internet. That is the slippery-ist of slopes. What if tomorrow they don’t want to play by France’s rules or Germany’s or any other states. Frankly, it’s a dumb position to take if it’s true.
I think it boils down to China and Google having competing business propositions: Google’s stated mission is to organize the world’s information, but China wants to control it’s own. This has all the makings of a Thunderdome match, but I don’t believe that Google can win on the existing playing field, nor do I believe that public opinion will make a whit of difference. It hasn’t affected China’s position on human rights, Tibet, Taiwan, why should Google fare any better?
Now the NYT’s Roger Cohen has a nice piece today (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15iht-edcohen.html?partner=rss&emc=rss) that talks about China’s real problem with this situation: China’s economy is based on an open, global economy and at some point that’s going to require a open sharing of information. So they don’t have a sustainable position. But if something happens, it won’t be because of Google.