If China and Google were listed as a couple on Facebook, right now they’d have to change their status to ‘It’s Complicated’, as China’s state-run Xinhua news agency expressed an angry and pointed criticism of Google’s behavior. For weeks now, rumors have been swirling that Google is about to pull out of China after it became unhappy with the conduct of the Chinese government, who Google have suggested may have been connected to a hacker attack that temporarily took down the search engine in China.
But in a very public rebuke, Xinhua suggested that Google entered China agreeing to abide by its laws and is now reneging on its responsibilities, ignoring Chinese law for its own beneift. To make matters worse, some comments from the Chinese public online are full of nationalist fervor, with many wanting Google to just ‘get the hell out’.
Beyond the obvious issues with censorship, observers are also concerned that if Google does pull out of China, innovation and research will suffer, as Google employs hundred of people in R&D in the country.
[As reported by Reuters]
