Google`s courage vs. China`s censorship

China since Tuesday has blocked the term “Big Mac” on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site similar to Twitter. If Web user tries to use the term in a search, Weibo shows a message that it cannot shows the search result under Chinese law and government policy. The China Digital Times speculated that the ban was linked to a sex scandal involving Bo Xilai, the disgraced former party chief of Chongqing. “The May 29 edition of the Apple Daily ran an above-the-fold exposé of an alleged liaison between (actress) Zhang Ziyi and Bo Xilai. Above the story is an ad for 39-yuan KFC ‘Big Macs.’ Netizens are using ‘Big Mac’ to refer to the article,” the media outlet said. Of course, this article cannot be accessed in China due to its Great Firewall of Censorship.

A Google search in China on the Southern Metropolis Daily produces numerous results. Yet if one tries to search for the Southern Weekly, messages of failed access will appear then the computer will suddenly freeze for a while. For a PC user, a 90-second freeze can seem as long as a millennium. Internet users trying to search for information on what Beijing sees as politically sensitive can go back to Google’s main page only after enduring such punishment.

Google has courageously stood up to China’s online tyranny. From Thursday, when a user types in terms or Internet addresses blocked by Beijing, Google shows a message saying, “We’ve observed that searching for (a search term) in mainland China may temporarily break your connection to Google.” Due to the message, Chinese Web users who have complained about the search engine`s "unreliability" now recognize how their government infringes on their right to know.

Google, which started business in China in 2006, pulled out of the country in 2010 and moved to Hong Kong in protest against Beijing’s Internet censorship. After that, Internet users in mainland China who tried to access to Google were connected to Hong Kong Google and subject to the Great Firewall of Censorship. Google displayed courage to stand up to that censorship unlike rivals such as Baidu, Yahoo! and Bing, which have done business in China without major friction with Beijing via self-censorship systems. At a time when the world is paying attention to political change in China, Google exposed Beijing’s relentless oppression in an apparent attempt to establish its brand image as a guardian of freedom of expression. When will the Chinese people, who have grown complacent with their material wealth and given up their political liberty, become as courageous as Google?

Editorial Writer Kim Sun-deok (yuri@donga.com)