Don't go, say Chinese users to Google

Beijing: There is a spontaneous outpouring of indignation and dismay at the possible closure of Google operations in China over censorship - a rare display of defiance in a system where foreign companies have long accepted intrusive controls to gain access to a huge and growing market.

Visitors left flowers at its Beijing headquarters on Wednesday as Web sites buzzed with words of support and appeals to stay.

Some said they had gathered to "thank" Google for highlighting the lack of internet freedom in China. Others laid flowers, poems and candles.

One woman, who did not want to be identified said, "We are thankful because they stand by their principles."

Another said, "They are letting us know the truth."

The vigil was organised through the internet and text messages throughout Wednesday. Many of the internet users at the vigil said they relied on Google for information, study and work. They said they were saddened at the potential closure of Google in China.

"I feel it is a pity, even though it doesn't affect all of my life, but it is a real hassle if we don't have Google," said one student who withheld her name.

One concerned internet user had quoted a poem reading, "Where are the depths of the freedom that you wanted to give to the people? Where is it? Where is it?"

Web companies have endured criticism for cooperating with a communist system that tightly controls information.

Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others have acceded to pressure to block access to politically sensitive material. However Peter Barron, Google's UK Head of communications and public affairs said that they had "decided to change our approach to China."

"These attacks on our system as well as the surveillance exercise that we've discovered has led us to believe that we should no longer agree to censor our results in China," he added.

Google's decision even to talk publicly was rare in a system where Chinese officials react angrily to criticism.

Officials have wide regulatory discretion and companies avoid saying anything that might prompt retaliation.

China's foreign ministry and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not respond to requests for comment but the state Xinhua News Agency cited an unidentified official as saying the government was seeking more information from Google.

China's growing consumer market is especially important to many companies at a time when global demand has plunged.

The government is forecasting 8.3 percent economic growth for 2009 and China is on track to overtake Japan as the second-largest economy.
China has the world's most-populous Internet market, with 338 million people online as of June, and foreign Internet companies eager for a share of that.

But despite risking damage to their reputations by cooperating with the government, they have struggled to make headway against intense competition from Chinese rivals.

Yahoo, eBay Inc. and others have given up and turned over control of their China operations to local partners.

Google is the last global Internet company to manage its own China arm.

On Wednesday, Google.cn said its top search term of the day was "Tiananmen," possibly due to Web surfers looking for material on the government's violent crackdown on 1989 pro-democracy protests. The Number two search topic was "Google leaving China."

Google created its China-based Google.cn site in 2006, agreeing to censor results by excluding sites to which access was blocked by government filters, popularly known as the Great Firewall of China.

Google said on Tuesday it would stop censoring search results on Google.cn. That would allow users to find politically sensitive photos and Web sites abroad, though downloading them might still be barred by government filters.

It also said it had discovered that computer hackers had tricked human-rights activists into exposing their e-mail accounts to outsiders.(Read: Google to exit China over censorship?)