Thursday, November 30, 2006
How to Conquer the Chinese Market
Reporters Without Borders is an organization that defends journalists who have been imprisoned by the Chinese government for posting online criticisms of their government. “It is known that a total of 61 Internet users are currently in prison in China” for openly criticizing its government on the Internet. Reporters Without Borders is against censorship and supports the freedom of speech.
Reporters without Borders believe that Yahoo! and Google “should refrain from censoring their search tools” and avoid denying the Chinese Internet-users their freedom of expression. Yahoo!, unfortunately, has been censoring its Chinese-language search-engine for several years in their effort to conquer the Chinese market. However, Google has not yet decided to censor its search engine which led the Chinese authorities to filter Google’s search results by themselves. This was difficult for them to execute successfully by themselves.
It was because of their struggles to censor Google’s search engine that they decided to block Google’s web site instead. Access to Google’s search-engine “was blocked for a week in September 2002 by the Chinese authorities.” The Chinese Internet-users were redirected to baidu.com which is the Chinese version of Google, except it censors all information that criticizes the Chinese government.
Reporters without Borders supports Google as well as other Internet search engines that refuse to censor its information to its visitors. But Google now seems ready to follow Yahoo’s! lead and "mak[e] compromises [with Chinese authorities] that directly threaten[s] freedom of expression." Google’s decision to censor its search engine may be an attempt to conquer the Chinese market just like Yahoo! did.
Reporters without Borders believe that Yahoo! and Google “should refrain from censoring their search tools” and avoid denying the Chinese Internet-users their freedom of expression. Yahoo!, unfortunately, has been censoring its Chinese-language search-engine for several years in their effort to conquer the Chinese market. However, Google has not yet decided to censor its search engine which led the Chinese authorities to filter Google’s search results by themselves. This was difficult for them to execute successfully by themselves.
It was because of their struggles to censor Google’s search engine that they decided to block Google’s web site instead. Access to Google’s search-engine “was blocked for a week in September 2002 by the Chinese authorities.” The Chinese Internet-users were redirected to baidu.com which is the Chinese version of Google, except it censors all information that criticizes the Chinese government.
Reporters without Borders supports Google as well as other Internet search engines that refuse to censor its information to its visitors. But Google now seems ready to follow Yahoo’s! lead and "mak[e] compromises [with Chinese authorities] that directly threaten[s] freedom of expression." Google’s decision to censor its search engine may be an attempt to conquer the Chinese market just like Yahoo! did.
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Can the Chinese keep their population on a leash without the collaboration of western corporations like Google and Yahoo? Should western goverments prevent corporations from assisting in this crackdown on chinese dissidents? Are these "compromises" a necessary cost of doing business? A short term price for a long term opening of China to market forces?
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