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Article

16 Apr 2006

Author:
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune

Google caves to China's censors

This is an open letter to Larry Page, co-founder of Google...During a question-and-answer session...last week, Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said he had no plans to lobby the Chinese government to loosen its handcuffs on Internet searches..."I think it's arrogant for us to walk into a country where we are just beginning operations and tell that country how to run itself," he said. I say, Why not? It's not as if no one ever tried to tell China how to run itself before...I was encouraged to hear that Schmidt said the company's China strategy was a hotly debated internal issue. And, at least, Google's not as deep into China's hip pockets as the other companies. Not yet, anyway. Unfortunately, Google's Chinese version actually has to have its amazing speed slowed down in order to comply with China's blocking of search-words like "Tibet," "Falun Gong" and even "democracy." China's government has converted your invention, which is one of the world's greatest educational tools, into a weapon of propaganda. [also refers to Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo!]