How important is Google’s presence in China?
Google is a fairly minor player in the search engine market in China. The prominent company is baidu (baidu.com) – an indigenous Chinese search engine which takes the largest share of the market. It is estimated that Google has approximately a 30% share in the market, against the 59% taken by baidu.
Why have Google threatened to pull out of China?
There are two reasons, really. Google seems to have faced a real moral dilemma about compromising their normal freedom of search in line with Chinese censorship laws, even during the period of their initial entry into the Chinese market in 2006. At this point, and since, they have received a lot of flak as to how this impacts on their core brand values and many argue that their decision to withdraw from China is shaped by this.
The second reason, offered perhaps by the slightly less generous onlookers, is that Google’s gesture is a result of their failure to win the majority share of the market from indigenous competitor baidu. Some argue that this decision comes from a company who is second in the market, and that if they were number one, Google may have gone a different way.
How strict is censorship in China?
Censorship in China is very real, and there are restrictions in place which would certainly not be tolerated in a Western liberal democracy. However, it is a much freer place than forty to fifty years ago, during the period under Chairman Mao, and there is a tremendous amount of freedom of information which was not available then.
There are however certain things which cannot be questioned in China; the single party rule of the Chinese Communist Party cannot be contradicted, and there is strict laws against the mention of events such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, or the separation or independence of Taiwan and Tibet.
How has the internet impacted on Chinese attempts at regulations?
The internet has been one of the biggest revolutions in the way in which the Chinese state can interact with its population. As a result of the internet, there exists a kind of virtual conversation between the government and areas of the Chinese population. People can post complaints about corrupt officials, for example, and the internet can be used to debate and discuss the situation in China. It has become a powerful social tool.
More generally, what difficulties are faced by Western companies operat
ing in China?
For Western businesses going into China, the market is a place where they can go and make a lot of money – but they can easily lose it again. There are laws which are constantly in flux, and the society and mode of doing business are significantly corrupt – there is a need to keep local officials happy in order to be allowed to continue, and ultimately to succeed. For Western companies, the Chinese market is extremely lucrative, but very unpredictable.
How fair are Chinese claims that Google should adapt to local rules when operating in China?
The Chinese would argue that any company who wants to do business in China has to obey Chinese law. However, companies – as is the case with individuals – have to think about what they stand for, and what are their brand values. And for an information company like Google, being asked to limit or censor the information which they distribute puts them into some fairly tricky moral knots.
Rana Mitter is the Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the Institute for Chinese Studies.
