Google ready to shut down Chinese search

 

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By Barry Collins and Reuters

Posted on 15 Mar 2010 at 07:35

Google is "99.9% certain" to shut its Chinese search engine, according to reports.

Although talks are ongoing with the Chinese authorities over Google's ultimatum to remove the censorship shackles from its search results or leave the country, it now seems all but certain the shutters will come down on Google.cn.

A Financial Times report claims that talks reached an impasse over the weekend, leaving Google with little option but to follow through on its threat to walk out.

The planet won't stop spinning because Google leaves, and Chinese internet users will still remain online without Google

Those reports are backed up by a commentary on the website of the official Xinhua news agency, which suggests the Google pull-out is inevitable. "The planet won't stop spinning because Google leaves, and Chinese internet users will still remain online without Google," the commentary states.

"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."

Officially, Google says negotiations are still continuing. "We've been very clear that we are no longer going to self-censor our search results," a company spokesman told Reuters.

"We are in active discussions with the Chinese Government, but we are not going to engage in a running commentary about those conversations."

Experts on China's telecoms industry claim Google's top priority is now the welfare of its staff in Beijing. "Google is very sensitive to protecting its people, and making decisions in a way that will limit the impact on them," said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, a Beijing-based company that advises on China's IT and telecommunications sectors.