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Google is free to leave
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-19 08:01
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Google is free to leave China. But if it chooses to stay, it has to follow China's laws, says an article in Xinhua net. Excerpts:
On March 10, senior Google officials threatened to run its online search engine without following China's laws even if its website was blocked in the country.
Two days later, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong made it clear that it was up to Google to decide whether it wanted stay in China or pull out. But if it chooses to stay and violates China's laws, it will be held accountable for its actions.
Google and its backers are politicizing the issue by blaming China's Internet supervision for creating the problem. Even in the country where Google is headquartered, government officials regularly search people's e-mails by invoking the Patriot Act. Many US states, too, have passed laws on Internet supervision. Despite all this, Google finds trouble only with China's laws.
It is ridiculous for Google to blame China's laws for pulling out its services from the country when it follows similar regulations in other countries. This is all the more reason why its attempt to politicize and drum up support should be condemned.
(China Daily 03/19/2010 page9)
