After a Gmail hacking issue broke out in January, Google has made it clear that it will review its Chinese operations believing that the Chinese government is the one behind all these. They even go as far as saying they may shut down their whole Chinese search operations.
Now, Google has come to a conclusion. The company is now 99.9% sure that they are going to shutter their Google.cn website. It's about time.
Even after the issue has reached the White House with Sec. Hillary Clinton even encouraging American companies in China to not tolerate censorship, it seems like China will never change its policies regarding free speech and censorship for the sake of Google.
According to a Financial Times report, Google has reached the decision that it will no longer tolerate censored search results.
"If [Google] takes steps that violate Chinese laws, that would be unfriendly, that would be irresponsible, they would have to bear the consequences," said Li Yizhong, Chinese Minister for China's Industry and Information Technology.
However, the minister, albeit his strong words warning off Google, still encouraged Google to stay. "If you don't leave, China will welcome that; if you don't leave, it will be beneficial for the development of the Internet in China." he said. Google.cn has taken 30% of the Chinese search market.
