Beijing Said Facebook and Google Are Welcome Back To China as Long as They 'Respect China's Laws'

Will Facebook and Google come back to China? The Chinese government says they can, as long as they "respect China's laws." From a Quartz report: Yesterday at a press conference held in preparation for the upcoming World Internet Conference, a Bloomberg reporter asked Ren Xianliang, deputy director of the Cyberspace Administration of China (which oversees internet governance) if the government would permit the two American internet giants to re-enter China. Both companies still have business-facing services in China, but Google effectively closed its consumer-facing search engine there in 2010, and authorities have blocked Facebook's social network since 2009. To this, Ren said, "China's internet development has always maintained a policy of openness. As for foreign internet companies, as long as they respect China's laws, don't harm the interests of the country, and don't harm the interests of consumers, we welcome them to enter China, where they can together share the benefits of China's developing internet."

We welcome them back to get a huge cut

[Anonymous Coward]

i.e., they give us a lot of money and share data collected

Re:We welcome them back to get a huge cut

[Anonymous Coward]

so basically the same terms as the US has for them give us money (tax on income?) and share data (NSA/FBI etc)

Re:

[balbeir]

Ah, the power of the false equivalency !

Re:

[EEPROMS]

Accept there is one small problem, China's legal system isn't a rule of law system but a corrupt rule of man system. Basically there are some general rules in the chinese legal system but they are changed at a whim in court. A rule of law system is that irrespective of the mood of the judge or the politicians the law is the law.

Re:Corrupt!

[hackwrench]

People throw around the term corruption so much it doesn't mean anything anymore. If a system plays by its own rules, it isn't corrupt. What evidence do you have that the Chinese system does not play by its own rules?

Re:

[AHuxley]

The issue with China is they now want international respect and equal standing for all aspects of Communist rule on the global stage.
A court order to recapture someone who escaped China is to be respected and the person sent back as with any normal "criminal" under international law.
Censorship and account tracking is just part of that legal system and if a US band wants access to the market in China they have to conform.
No more free exchange of ideas, freedom of speech, freedom after speech. No comments

"we'll respect your laws..."

[v1]

... when your laws start respecting your people.

Re:

[houstonbofh]

How about "obey Chin's laws?" Respecting that trash is asking a little much...

Re:

[Shane_Optima]

They only do that in Soviet Russia, not China.

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[johanw]

It would be nice if there were countries starting to do that, and not for example let their policies be made by big corporations. Look how the US is trying to censor sites that go against its bought copyright laws.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow pot/kettle/black.

The US is a long long way from being clean its self.
Per capita it has the highest prison population in the world, by a LARGE margin.
Guantanamo Bay
Arcane voter registration systems designed to exclude
etc etc etc etc etc

Re:

[fbobraga]

welcome to free world, FUCK YEAH!!!

Facebook and Google welcome...

[Oswald McWeany]

...as long as the agree to China's laws:

Meaning censorship, sharing data on dissidents, funnel money into China and not take any out, agree to let the state quietly execute any employees who speaks bad about the leadership.

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[Anonymous Coward]

And no data caps.

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[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like the US ?

Sharing data with the NSA, funnel money into US politicians pockets (lobbyist, campaign donations), buy off food and drug regulations, etc etc etc

Re: Facebook and Google welcome...

[peragrin]

There is a slight difference the NSA can't arrest anyone where in China billionaires how don't pay the party dues properly disappear.

The big thing is censorship. China wants the ability to shutdown google or Facebook has a news story that runs counter to government interests.

That is huge. Every second of every day Americans are used to hating on government and its interests.

Re:

[Falos]

That's thought-provoking; maybe it's because for all the noise we make, we can't do shit anyway. Over there, it's a threat, over here, "lawl we dgaf dwi commoners send a letter to your congressman oh wait it's me"

Sure, let them complain about the state. Who cares, we own them.

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[fbobraga]

Meaning censorship, sharing data on dissidents, funnel money into China and not take any out, agree to let the state quietly execute any employees who speaks bad about the leadership.

You mean like the US ?

something like it (and the majority of the world)

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[bill_mcgonigle]

Meaning censorship, sharing data on dissidents, funnel money into China and not take any out, agree to let the state quietly execute any employees who speaks bad about the leadership.

If you're supporting any regimes laws, you're almost always going against the human rights of its subjects (good ideas don't require force). China just makes this abundantly clear, so it's an illustrative example.

Re:Not take any (money) out?

[hackwrench]

Where did that come from? I haven't seen any reporting that China is preventing money from leaving its borders.

Re:

[Zontar The Mindless]

I can attest that, when I flew home from Guangzhou after spending Spring Festival with the in-laws, nobody in the security screening or Customs at Baiyun tried to take away my several very fat hongbao, which very obviously held a lot more cash than one is supposed to be able to take out of the country legally.

What the Chinese authorities *are* worried about these days are the corrupt businessmen and Party officials smuggling stuff like tens of millions of yuan in cash, gold bars, diamonds, and so forth out

What China really said:

[LeftCoastThinker]

As for foreign internet companies, as long as they help us violate the privacy of our citizens, commit human rights violations and destroy any political opposition. (FTFY)

People equating China and the US have no damn clue how repressive China still is, most especially to it's own people. They have come a long way, but they still have a long way to go. Hopefully they don't decide to start WW3 before they get to a free society.

Re:

[LeftCoastThinker]

Racist? We have a black/arab president, a woman leading the race for the presidency, the republicans had a woman and black in the primary, we have had a black man/black woman secretary of state, we currently have a black woman US attorney general and a black man before that. We are probably among the top if not the top multicultural country on the planet.

Repressive? We are arguably the most free people in the world. We enjoy the freedom of speech, religion, association, etc. How specifically is the US

don't harm the interests of consumers

[frovingslosh]

..... don't harm the interests of consumers

That's pretty much a deal breaker.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the consumers are the advertisers and the products are the users.. so why is it a deal breaker in this context?

So basically...

[Chas]

Never.

here you go.

[TsuruchiBrian]

Message(translate("English", "Mandarin", "go fuck yourself")).sendTo("China");

China's Laws?

[Anonymous Coward]

The CCP has no issue with the concept of social networks. There are Chinese analogs to every US social network: Facebook --> Renren, Twitter --> Sina Weibo, YouTube --> Youku-Tudou, WeChat --> Snapchat/FB Messenger. What the CCP has issues with is social networks to which its censorship officials are not given unrestricted access so that they can remove posts they dislike. China would happily allow Facebook, Google, etc. inside if they get to decide what content can appear on the sites.

Obviou

Yeah, right

[WillAffleckUW]

Just like we respect Saudi Arabia's "laws".

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[johanw]

The US usually respects Saudi laws because they don't bother US interests. However, it does certainly not respect laws in countries that go against the interests of those who pay the politicians: unwanted copyright laws (or worse: lack thereof) is attacked vigorously by the USA.

Counting the days until Facebook is back

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

I'm not convinced that there isn't any price Zuckerberg wouldn't pay to get back into China. But I also admit that I don't have a great opinion of him.

During this decade I had two girlfriends (not at the same time) who were both born and raised in China ladies. They weren't very fond of the Chinese government, which is why they didn't want to live in China any more. I used to think that a lot of Chinese people were like that. Then I read recently that a Western news agency did a survey in China and

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[johanw]

Well, making some money is of course more important if you don't know how to pay for your dinner tomorrow then if you don't know if you can afford that $100,000 car and should take the $60,000 version instead.

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[e r]

They weren't very fond of the Chinese government, which is why they didn't want to live in China any more. I used to think that a lot of Chinese people were like that. Then I read recently that a Western news agency did a survey in China and they found overwhelmingly that while Chinese people didn't think their government was perfect and they thought that there were some important things that they still needed to do, basically everything was negotiable and they were willing to give it up in terms of personal freedom if they kept making good money.

That applies to literally every government, doesn't it?

LOL

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure. The country that poisons its own babies for profit is worried about Internet companies harming consumers. Fuck off, China.

on this site, in 1989, nothing happened

[Holammer]

New search result when you google 'Tiananmen Square'. If they accept.