A report in the Beijing News (link) has quoted an official with Google China, who says it is “very likely” that all searches from the unfiltered Chinese version of Google.com will be redirected to the censored Google.cn. As Letters from China points out, in recent Congressional testimony, Google said:
We have recently launched Google.cn, a version of Google’s search engine that we will filter in response to Chinese laws and regulations on illegal content. This website will supplement, and not replace, the existing, unfiltered Chinese-language interface on Google.com. That website will remain open and unfiltered for Chinese-speaking users worldwide.
See also a comment on this from the Non-violent Resistance blog.
Technorati Tags: China, Google
Another article in China Business Times (中华工商时报)(link) says:
On Google.cn, if you search some sensitive words, such as porn, the bottom of the page will have a reminder ‘According to local laws, regulations and policies, some of the results are not shown.’ Google is claiming outside of China that in order to establish Google.cn, they have been required to censor certain sensitive information from the search results. But the question is, is it necessary for an enterprise that is operating within the borders of China to keep on telling your clients you are following domestic law?… Can Google get away with this?