HONG KONG—Internet giant Google could soon close its Chinese search engine, industry commentators say, although the company said Monday it was still in talks with officials to try to reach an agreement over censorship of its search results.
The company has been in a standoff with Beijing after it announced it would halt compliance with Chinese censorship laws following a hacker attack it said it had traced to Chinese sources.
While chief executive Eric Schmidt has hinted at an announcement soon, many observers doubt that the talks have much hope of getting past a current impasse.
“Google says it can’t accept a search engine that is run under censorship,” said Guangzhou-based Internet commentator Beifeng. “China is unlikely to accept a search engine that isn’t censored.”
“There is no room for agreement between the two sides,” Beifeng said, concluding that “the prospects for a continuation of the Google.cn service already look bleak.”
China forces Internet service providers to censor words and images the ruling Communist Party says are illegal or unacceptable.
Some terms off-limits
These include pornography and politically sensitive material, such as reports of unrest and complaints about official corruption, or material relating to “forbidden” historical themes such as the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing.
Social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are entirely inaccessible in China, which uses a complex system of filters, blocks, and self-censorship practices to uphold the government’s “Great Firewall” of Internet controls, known online simply as the “GFW.”
Chinese netizens reported over the weekend that they were already unable to access the Google.cn China-based search engine, although the U.S.-based Google.com will remain available to Chinese users, albeit with results censored by domestic filters and service providers.
“Some people are already reporting that you can’t get to the Google.cn Web site at all. It will be worth noting what the views of the Chinese media are in the next few days,” wrote one.
A Google spokesperson said talks hadn’t ended with Chinese officials, but repeated the company’s stance that it wouldn’t accept self-censorship.
Settlement seen as unlikely
“We’ve been very clear that we are no longer going to self-censor our search results,” Reuters quoted an unnamed official as saying.
“We are in active discussions with the Chinese government.”
Industry analysts say that Google’s position makes any settlement over Google.cn extremely unlikely, a view which was backed up by a recent article on the state-run news agency Xinhua’s Web site.
“The world won’t stop turning because Google leaves,” the editorial said, adding that China’s 384 million Internet users will still remain online without the company’s help.
“In the past, China’s Internet developed very well without Google, and we can be sure that in the future, it will also develop in the same healthy way without Google,” the article said.
Calls to Google offices in Beijing went unanswered during office hours Monday.
An employee who answered the phone at the company’s Shanghai offices said the branch office was functioning normally, and denied the business was closing down.
“No. We are still getting customers at this end,” the Google employee said. “You can [still buy advertisements].”
A media industry observer in Beijing said the Google.cn business seems unsustainable now.
“Most of its business it can carry out from the U.S. anyway,” he said. “But that doesn’t look too good over here in China, because it looks like a loss of face. We are waiting with interest to find out what actually ends up happening, what happens next."
Original reporting in Cantonese by Hai Nan and in Mandarin by Ding Xiao. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.