China Criticizes Google's "US Ties"

krou writes "State-run news agency Xinhua has attacked what it calls Google's 'intricate ties with the US government' amongst its high level officials, claiming that it's 'an open secret that some security experts in the Pentagon are from Google.' They have also accused the company of trying to change Chinese society by imposing American values on it. Xinhua said that 'One company's ambition to change China's internet rules will only prove to be ridiculous.' Google has denied the claims. Google spokeswoman Jessica Powell said that 'The decision to review our business in China was entirely Google's and Google's alone.'"

Re:Let's not forget

[Teun]

The fact that society (including the internet) can be controlled and is controlled is no excuse for western companies to cooperate with the Chinese version of control.
I would go as far as to say a company that wants to be credible to their western customers can't possibly be compliant with present day Chinese restrictions re. freedom of information.
It looks to me Google finds it difficult to console their 'Do no Evil' morality with the Chinese instructions for complete government control.

Along the same line I'm very happy with the recent EU decision to outlaw export of Internet filtering technology to countries where it's used dumb down the general population.

Re:Let's not forget

[poetmatt]

so let me get this straight: google, which is located in the us, is being complained about for having connections in the US? And this is coming from the chinese news, which is located in china, and has connections with China? ror.

Re:Can't be

[msoftsucks]

That's not what is happening here. What's really happening is that the last 12 years of giving the rich tax breaks and giving them free money has caused them to be even more greedy. Instead of reinvesting that money in America, they fired all their American workers and closed down the American factories and opened new ones in China. They started off saying that only the low-skilled work will be moved, to where they are now moving engineering and higher level skills. And they are trying to hide that they are doing this. Just look at IBM recently saying that they will stop reporting employee levels by country. The rich don't care if they destablize America and get a little dirty working with a dictatorship because the were already dirty making their money in the US. The movement of jobs doesn't indicate that people don't care about these jobs, it shows that the rich have no allegance to any country and are killing America for greed. Plain and simple.

Re:Let's not forget

[Cimexus]

I'll +1 the grammar Nazi above, by acting as a helpful grammar Nazi myself.

The word(s) you are looking for are 'regardless', or possibly 'irrespective'.

Re:Let's not forget

[Mister Whirly]

If you think Google takes down websites then you are sadly mistaken. They are a search engine. Pulling a site from a privately owned and operated search engine is not the same thing as "taking down a website". It is not like every website has a god given right to be listed on Google. You violate Google's terms, and they are free to yank your site from their listings. Google is a company, they are not an official internationally sanctioned Internet authority.

Re:Let's not forget

[SilasMortimer]

Isn't Xinhua correct in this though? There's no lies - Google tried to change Chinese society and bring American values in it, just like is done in Iraq but only with military.

Google did no such thing. Google provides a service and China wants to restrict it. Furthermore, it wants Google to take on the responsibility of restricting what China wants restricted. Even if the people at Google were comfortable with the restrictions, which they have a right not to be, the cost to them of trying to enforce the Chinese government's rules is prohibitive. Makes it overall a bit stupid for Google to agree to anything.

And you're saying there are no lies. So you say that Google has ties to the government? Even if you're a conspiracy nut, look at recent history with regards to how the US government handles China. What will you see? We've kissed their asses. US politicians always stand strong on American principles... except when power is involved. This is why we don't recognize the Turkish genocide of Armenians and it's why the Chinese can trample whatever human rights it wants to even outside of their own country.

This is nothing new, the same has been done with Hollywood and other mass culture for long time. Just play Civilization - you can spread your culture and slowly your enemies cities will want to join you.

You make it difficult for me to defend the effects of computer and video games to people who say that they stunt people's critical thinking skills.