【英语中国】谷歌策略微调 中国牌照仍是未知数

Google Inc. said it would change how Internet users in China access its search service after the Chinese government objected to its recent strategy of redirecting Chinese users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong and threatened the company with the loss of its license.

It's unclear whether the small change to Google's Chinese site will meet with Chinese government approval and lead to the extension of the company's license to provide online content in China. Google said in a post on its blog late Monday that it had resubmitted its application to renew the license, which comes up for renewal as of Wednesday.

Google's latest move comes three months after the Internet search giant said it would stop obeying the Chinese government's requirement to censor search results, which it had been following since the China-based site opened in 2006. Since March, instead of providing censored search results, Google has automatically redirected users of google.cn, its mainland Chinese address, to a Hong Kong-based site, google.com.hk, which doesn't censor search results.

But, according to a Google post on Monday, the Chinese government has told Google that its approach is 'unacceptable'and that its Internet license won't be renewed if it continues the practice. Chinese regulators frown on local Internet sites that link directly to foreign sites outside their control. Hong Kong, because it has a separate legal system, is treated as a foreign country in many areas of Chinese law, including censorship.

In response, Google said it would stop the automatic redirect, requiring that users take the additional step themselves. Visitors to google.cn are now presented with a message in Chinese that says, 'We have moved to google.com.hk.' They must then click on an image to get to the Hong Kong site. Google doesn't filter results on that site, although the Chinese government blocks certain results for users inside mainland China.

Other Google services that don't require self-censoring by the company, such as maps, translations and music downloads, are still running on google.cn and can be accessed either directly or through the Hong Kong site. The main effect of the change is to make users of Google's China site go through an additional step to search with Google. To avoid that, they could just sign on to the Hong Kong site directly.

Google also faces regulatory uncertainty in China over its fast-growing Goople Maps service. Rules issued last month require a government license to provide online maps in China, and it's not clear how Google's effort to get one is going.

Reactions from Chinese Internet users Tuesday ranged from skepticism that the new effort would work, to sympathy for Google's trials with the government, to disdain for a company that is losing ground in the market. 'Google is further away from us!' read a comment on the microblogging service of Sina, a major Chinese Internet portal. 'If you want to leave, just leave!' said another.

Chinese government officials didn't publicly react to the Google change. Wang Lijian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said Tuesday that his agency had no immediate comment on the move.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, speaking at a regular press briefing Tuesday, said he hadn't seen Google's statement, and he didn't comment on it directly. 'I'd like to stress that the Chinese government encourages foreign enterprises to operate in China according to the law, and we also administer the Internet according to the law,' Mr. Qin said.

For sophisticated Internet users in China, the change seems trivial. 'There's no difference at all. We can still use it via google.com.hk, google.com.tw, google.com,' said Justin Zhang, a Google user in Shanghai, referring to Google's Taiwan site as well as its main global site. Even if Google's license in China isn't renewed, its services could still be accessed through those offshore sites, he said.

But the change does make using Google more complicated and less intuitive than other Chinese search engines, which could push the company further out of the mainstream of the local Internet market.

According to figures from Analysys International, Google's market share in China declined to 31% in the 2010 first quarter from 35.6% in the previous quarter, with Chinese rival Baidu Inc. benefiting at Google's expense. Analysts have estimated that Google's Chinese business is small and previously accounted for just 1% to 2% of the company's net revenue.

Google said its new strategy is an attempt to comply with local regulations while still meeting its pledge not to censor search results. 'This new approach is consistent with our commitment not to self censor and, we believe, with local law,' wrote David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, in Monday's blog post. 'We are therefore hopeful that our license will be renewed on this basis so we can continue to offer our Chinese users services via Google.cn.'

Finding the right balance between open access to information and local sensibilities has been a challenge for Internet companies in many countries. In India and Thailand, for example, Google and others have removed material that their governments found objectionable or that violated local laws. In Thailand, Google's YouTube video service blocks access to videos that might be seen to insult the king. In some parts of Europe, where Nazi imagery is illegal, Google blocks access to that.

But dealing with China's extensive online-censorship requirements has been a particular struggle for the company. In January Google cited a major cyberattack in which hackers stole some of the company's proprietary computer code and spied on the Google email accounts of Chinese human-rights activists.
Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder said in a March interview with The Wall Street Journal that after that attack he pushed the company to end its self-censoring of search results in China, arguing that the country's Web censorship had the 'earmarks of totalitarianism.'

谷歌(Google Inc.)说，将改变中国互联网用户访问其搜索服务的方式；此前，中国政府反对谷歌最近将中国用户转至不受审查的谷歌香港网站的战略，并以失去互联网经营许可证威胁谷歌。

不清楚谷歌中文网站做出的小小改变是否会满足中国政府的审批要求，进而延长该公司互联网经营许可证的有效期。谷歌周一晚间在公司博客上的一篇文章中说，已经重新提交了延长许可证有效期的申请。谷歌的互联网经营许可证周三就要到期了。

三个月前，互联网搜索巨头谷歌说，将不再遵守中国政府审查搜索结果的要求；自2006年谷歌开设中文网站以来，一直遵守中国的审查制度。自3月份以来，谷歌不再提供经过审查的搜索结果，而是自动将谷歌大陆中文网站google.cn的用户转至对搜索结果不进行审查的香港网站google.com.hk。

不过，据谷歌周一的博客文章说，中国政府已经告知谷歌，它的做法是“不可接受”的，如果谷歌继续这样做，它的互联网经营许可证的有效期将不会获得延长。中国监管部门对那些直接与不受他们控制的国外网站相连的本地网站感到不满。由于香港有着独立的法律体系，在中国法律的很多领域中待遇类似一个独立的国家，包括审查。

Bloomberg News谷歌在中国面临一系列监管方面的问题。图为上海的一家网吧。谷歌作出回应说，将停止自动转向，这样用户需要自己手动操作。目前，google.cn的访问者会看到一条中文信息：我们已移至google.com.hk。用户必须点击一幅图片才能进入香港网站。谷歌对香港网站的搜索结果没有进行审查，不过中国政府对内地用户屏蔽了部分结果。

其他不需要公司自我审查的谷歌服务，比如地图、翻译和音乐下载，仍会在google.cn上运行，用户可以直接或通过香港网站加以访问。谷歌不再自动转向的主要影响是，谷歌中国网站的用户在用谷歌进行搜索时必须自己转至香港网站。要想避免这样的麻烦，用户可以直接登录香港网站。

谷歌在迅速增长的谷歌地图服务方面也面临中国监管上的不确定性。上个月出台的规定要求获得政府许可才能在中国提供在线地图，不清楚谷歌申请许可的工作进展如何。

周二，中国互联网用户的反应有怀疑新的做法能否行得通的，有同情谷歌惹上政府麻烦的，有对在这个市场上逐渐失去地盘的谷歌的不屑的。中国主要门户网站新浪网的微博上的一则评论说，谷歌离我们更远了！另外一则评论说，如果你想走就走好了。

中国政府官员未公开回应谷歌的改变。中国工信部发言人王立健周二说，该部对谷歌的这一举措不做立即置评。

中国外交部发言人秦刚周二在例行记者会上说，他尚未看到谷歌公司的新声明。他也未对此予以直接置评。他重申了中国的立场，即中国政府鼓励外资企业依法在华运营，也依法管理互联网。

对中国互联网的老用户而言，谷歌这种变化算不了什么。上海的一位谷歌用户小张(Justin Zhang)说，这根本没什么区别，用户仍旧可以通过google.com.hk、google.com.tw及 google.com来使用谷歌的服务。他指的是谷歌的台湾网址及其主要的全球网站。即使谷歌在华许可证不予延续，仍可通过这些海外网址来获取谷歌的服务。

但这种改变的确使谷歌的使用相比中国其它搜索引擎更为复杂、直感性差一些，可能使谷歌进一步远离中国主流的本地互联网市场。

根据北京研究公司易观国际(Analysys International)提供的数据，今年第一季度谷歌在华市场份额由去年第四季度的35.6%下降至31%，其中国对手百度(Baidu Inc.)却因而受益。分析人士估计，谷歌在华业务规模较小，之前仅占该公司净收入的1%至2%。

谷歌称，其公司新战略是要在遵守当地监管条例的同时，仍满足其不对搜索结果进行审查的承诺。谷歌首席法律顾问多姆德(David Drummond)周一在博客中写道，这种新的方式符合公司不自行进行审查的承诺，而谷歌也相信，这符合当地法规。因而，谷歌希望许可证能得以延续，以便继续通过Google.cn为中国用户提供服务。

对许多国家的互联网公司来说，要在放开信息获取渠道与本地审查之间取得良好的平衡一直是个不小的挑战。例如在印度与泰国，谷歌及其它公司去掉了当地政府认为有异议或违反当地法律的内容。谷歌在泰国的YouTube视频服务阻止访问可能被视为冒犯国王的视频。在欧洲部分国家，纳粹的形象是违法的，谷歌也阻止这类链接。

但对谷歌而言，应对中国涉及广泛的在线审查要求一直特别困难。1月份谷歌说受到严重的网络攻击，黑客窃取了该公司部分专有计算机编码，刺探中国人权活动分子的谷歌邮箱帐号。

谷歌联合创始人布林(Sergey Brin)3月份在接受《华尔街日报》(Wall Street Journal)采访时说，谷歌受到此次攻击后，他促使公司结束了在中国就搜索结果进行的自我审查，称中国的网络审查具有“极权主义特征”。