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Google to Flee China?
The move would also affect Google Earth and Google Maps, which would no longer be available to the majority of the world's on line population.
Drummond described the attacks as 'a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China'. He went on: 'However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different. This attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies.
'Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective'. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on China 'for an explanation' of Google's allegations. 'The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy,' she said. According to a report by Nomura Holdings Inc. analyst Jin Yoon, Baidu will pick up most of Google’s search business, but Tencent and Sohu.com will also gain.
The Google case appears to be just one of a number of cases where Chinese norms are rubbing up against western mores, with uncomfortable results on both sides. Chinese authorities shut more than 100,000 web sites in December, according to Tian Hou, an analyst with Pali Capital Inc. in New York. There are a string of human rights issues that directly affect the west, from an Australian mining executive held incommunicado to the execution of a mentally-ill British man for drug trafficking.
Even climate change is being laid at China's door, with foreign diplomats taking the rare step of saying China watered down the recent Copenhagen accord.
At the very least, Google's departure would confirm that China's web market is an inhospitable place for foreigners. EBay Inc has stopped its Chinese venture. Microsoft Corp and Yahoo now rely only on local ventures. Nor is it only IT companies that have found the going unexpectedly tough. The Guardian newspaper in Britain has composed a list of companies that have folded Chinese operations in the last decade. It includes Time Warner (cinemas); Fosters (beer); A hold (groceries); Giordano (clothes) and Levi Strauss (jeans).
Still, while most analysts seem to see the Google case as a result of rising Chinese assertion in the world, it may also signal the opposite: that if China wants to play in the world economy, it may have to follow international norms.
Of course, there is still plenty of opinion in China that the country is big enough not to need to play in the world economy. But JP Gan, the managing director at Shanghai-based Qiming Venture Partners, also speaks for many: 'It’s kind of ridiculous that a country as big as China can’t allow the most prominent, popular Internet company in the world to operate.'
