Google Accuses China of blocking Gmail

When we were in China, we could not get Facebook, because there is no FB in China. I could enter my blog but I could not log in as I had some drafts that I wanted to publish but was unable to. Then we could not get Gmail, and when we came back we saw this in the STAR:


Mon Mar 21, 7:17 am ET
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Google Inc on Monday accused the Chinese government of making it difficult for Gmail users to access the service in the country, the latest development in a rocky relationship between the two.

Google said any difficulty users in China may have faced in the past few weeks accessing its email service was likely to be the result of government blocks, a Google spokeswoman said in a statement.

"There is no issue on our side, we have checked extensively," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

Gmail users in China said they were still able to log in to their accounts, but were unable to perform tasks such as sending email and accessing their address books.

Google's run-ins with the Chinese government began in January 2010, when the company said it was no longer willing to censor search results in the country. Previously, the company included a disclaimer on its China service that searches may not be complete because of local laws.

Searches for terms deemed sensitive by Chinese censors are routinely blocked. Chinese search engines such as that offered by Baidu Inc already voluntarily filter searches.

This is not the first time Google has accused China of interfering with its services. In January, Google said it had uncovered sophisticated China-based attacks on human rights activists using its Gmail service around the world.

The months-long censorship dispute that Google had with the Chinese government was a diplomatic flashpoint in Sino-U.S. Relations in 2010.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed inquiry.

Censorship of Web content has intensified in China following calls on foreign websites for a "Jasmine Revolution," which are anti-government gatherings inspired by demonstrations in the Middle East and North Africa.

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh in Hong Kong, Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Chris Lewis)


An interesting comment on the above:
US government also spies on American people. All our internet traffic is analyzed. Remember the story about the Sacramento girl who got a visit from the secret service just because of her writing on her blog. As a matter of fact, American government's spy on American people are much more extensive than any country on the earth. Under the name of anti terrorism, we have no privacy at all.
And a reply:
China doesn't hide their censorship. The US does. They hide it so well most people don't even realize it is there..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110321/bs_nm/us_google_china

China also has its own search engine called BAIDU.
Baidu has about 70 percent of China's search market by revenue
Baidu Inc is China's largest search engine

Another comment:

The average citizen knows nothing about censorship of Google and those who do know of it, have very nationalistic feelings about home grown companies such as Bai Du. I've discussed this with situation college age students and other 20 to 35 year olds. They could care less if Google is no longer available. As for licensing, don't be surprised if the Chinese government rejects Google to teach it a lesson and others who may think about taking on the government in the future. With the Chinese ability to catch up and overtake its competition in short time, look for Google to be irrelevant in China. Google blew it.