Google finally decided about the future of its Chinese search activities. Users visiting the mainland domain (Google.cn) are now being redirected to the Hong Kong domain (Google.com.hk). The reason being that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (中華人民共和國 香港特別行政區) doesn’t have the same filtering of search results requirements as the mainland authorities do.

The very likely next step is that Google.com.hk may be blocked in the mainland. And Google knows this very well: “We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services.”

This is where Google is strategically clever. The company will be able to say that it didn’t completely stop its mainland search activities by its own will; that the authorities blocked them.  They will be able to pose as the unwilling victim (even if they knew exactly what would happen). Thus less questions will be asked about the attitude of a company which speaks as if it was morally superior and pretends to give lessons to a country’s government. It has to be noted that at the same time Google expects big profits from the sales of mobile phones based on its Android software in that same country.

China has a long tradition of strategic thinking and Google’s move will be recognised for what it is. Not more, not less.

Google’s blog post

Following are  some thoughts and observations about the state of Google’s affairs in China. Statements are uttered, allegations are made, lots of speculation everywhere; but it seems much too early to draw any conclusions.

- Two big communications by Google about its China (ex?) activities in the same week. The two announcements couldn’t have been more different in tone and language.

• 1. Google’s letter to the Chinese Writers Association: apologies written in Chinese.
• 2. Google’s blog post “A new approach to China”: a statement, written in English, that Google has been led to “review the feasibility of its business in China”.

Big organisation, different departments, different people could explain for these differences.

- In its blog post Google names attacks on Gmail accounts. For these reasons, Google says it is no longer willing to work with the Chinese government in filtering its search results. The causality is not straightforward and nowhere in its blog post does Google say who was behind the attacks. Of course it is strongly suggesting. If this is the reason why the company is willing to go so far as to pull out of the country, why not be more direct?

- As noted by some commentators, Google’s business in China hasn’t been extremely successful.

- Google is an organisation, that has its own vision of the world, clearly split between Good and Evil. By giving itself the injunction “do no evil”, the company attributes itself the supreme power of judging between Good and Evil.

- If Google pulls out of China, will this mean no more Android based mobile phones in China? What would Dell and others say?

- How do Google’s CEO recent declarations about privacy fit with all this?

to be continued…

So Google wrote a letter to the Chinese Writers Association (中国作家协会). It was posted on January 7. and arrived the 9. at the association’s office. Written in Chinese characters, as one would expect, the letter is signed by Erik Hartmann, chief representative for the Asia-Pacific region of the Google Books Strategy and Liaison Department (谷歌图书战略合作部亚洲区首席代表). The writers association posted a photocopy of the document on its website.

In the letter Google mentions “different initial knowledge” (最初的认识不同和) and “differences in Chinese and US understanding of copyright” (中美两国版权法律制度的不同了解), which led to actions on their part that dissatisfied the Chinese authors.  The company also acknowledges that it didn’t communicate enough with the Chinese authors. Google says that for these reasons it is “willing to express its apologies to the Chinese writers” (谷歌愿意为此行为向中国作家表示道歉).

Google’s letter came in response to publicly expressed complaints by the writers association about the internet company. On the 18. November 2009, the writers association asserted that Google had been scanning books by Chinese authors without authorization, and that for this reason the Chinese Written Works Copyright Society (中国文字著作权协会) had met several times with Google without any satisfactory result. Therefore the writers association expressed three requests towards Google:

• 1. That Google gives to the writers association within one month the list of books written by Chinese authors that have already been scanned.
• 2. That Google stops scanning books by Chinese authors “without having received the legal rights to do so” (未经合法授权).
• 3. That Google comes up with a proposal of compensation before the end of year 2009 for the Chinese writers, whose works have already been scanned.

It is in response to this last deadline, which the writers association accepted to stretch one more week, that Google wrote its letter to the Chinese Writers Association. According to this letter, the first request has already been partly met. As for the two other, Google promises, that it will have a deal proposal (处理方案) and a framework for an agreement (协议的框架) before the end of March.  Google adds, that it is striving to get a signed agreement during the second quarter.

As Google says in its letter, these kind of dealings are a first for the company.

The writers association supports writer Mianmian (棉棉), who formally indicted Google, because of copyright issues. It also said, that, if Google fails to deliver a solution within the promised timeframe, it would continue to be active protecting copyright.

Google has already met three times with the Chinese Written Works Copyright Society. The society communicated on its website that Google asked to postpone the fourth meeting, that was planned on January12. The society says it agreed to postpone the meeting.

The Chinese Writers Association is a founding member of  the Chinese Written Works Copyright Society, along with top government entities, elite universities and research centers.

Chinese sources: 谷歌向中国作家书面道歉 承诺不收录未经授权作品; 中国作家协会发布维权通告：要求谷歌尽快赔偿