This move is a tentative attempt to circumvent the Beijing censorship without violating Chinese laws. However, the Chinese government seems angry at Google’s move and could block the Hong Kong search service in mainland China altogether.

The state-controlled Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed official with the State Council Information Office describing Google’s move as “totally wrong.”

“Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks,” the official said.

Google did not comment on its talks with Chinese authorities but according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Google got “reasonable indications that this was O.K.” Indicating Google’s retreat to Hong Kong. However, Sergey added that “we can’t be completely confident.”

Google’s retreat from China, for now, is only partial. In a blog post, Google said it would retain much of its existing operations in China, including its research and development team and its local sales force. While the China search engine, google.cn, has stopped working, Google will continue to operate online maps and music services in China.

Google’s pullout will not affect users in China using other services by Google like Gmail or Google Docs unless China decides to block Google entirely, just as it blocks Youtube, Blogspot, Twitter, Facebook, Typepad, Vimeo, just to name a few.

A college student in China who said his studies suffered after he discovered Internet porn has been awarded 10,000 yuan (1,466 dollars) for helping the government crack down on sexual content online.

The unidentified student at an unnamed college in northern Shanxi province reported 32 websites that contained pornography, winning a nationwide contest that has encouraged web-surfers to hunt down porn.

The unnamed student said, “In the past, when I was in middle school, I used to get grades that were good enough to enter a really good university. It is because of the influence of pornography on the Internet that I was only able to go to junior college.”

During an interview with the Shanxi Daily, this student stated his first encounter with porn was in middle school.

“I used Google because we couldn’t find any porn on Chinese websites. After our English teacher taught us the word “sex”, I entered the word and many foreign porn sites came up.”

Nearly 62,000 websites were reported during the first month of the crackdown, the paper said — an indication that a hefty number of web users were on the lookout for porn.

Chinese authorities arrested more than 5,000 people in a crackdown on Internet pornography in 2009, officials said earlier this year.

Internet use has expanded at a dizzying pace in China, which now has the world’s largest online population with at least 338 million users.

I don’t know what to say. Each site that the govern-ment takes down, about 100 new ones pops up. So in a way, one can make a living just by reporting porn sites; it is a sustainable way of making money.

The comment about can’t find any porn on Chinese websites and had to resort to using Google is simply outrageous and is a tell tale sign of being scripted ahead of time.

I failed.

The first time I posted, the post vanished after 10 minutes; I thought I posted it wrong and posted it again.  The post was up for 30 minutes, in which time two people forwarded my post to their friends, after which, the post and my friends’ forwards vanished and there’s no trace of it anywhere.

I’m not shocked that the translation got erased, I’m shocked at the speed it got erased.  The team working on ensuring China’s “free” Internet is mind-blowing efficient.

A new approach to China
1/12/2010 03:00:00 PM

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online. You can read more here about our cyber-security recommendations. People wanting to learn more about these kinds of attacks can read this U.S. government report (PDF), Nart Villeneuve’s blog and this presentation on the GhostNet spying incident.

We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech. In the last two decades, China’s economic reform programs and its citizens’ entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today.

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

Posted by David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

中文翻译：

像许多其他著名组织一样,谷歌也经常面临不同程度的黑客攻击.12月中旬,我们侦测到一个针对企业基础设施的高度复杂和有目标的攻击.这次攻击源自中国,并导致谷歌的知识财产被窃取.但是,不久后我们发现起初貌似仅仅只是次安全事故(尽管很重大)的这次攻击,其实大有不同.

首先,这次攻击不仅仅是针对谷歌.作为调查的一部分,我们发现至少20家其他各行业(包括互联网,财经,技术,媒体和化学等行业)的大型公司也类似地成为攻击目标.我们目前正在告知这些公司,并与相关美国政府机构合作.

第二,我们有证据显示袭击者的首要目标是进入中国人权活动家的Gmail帐号.根据目前的调查我们相信他们的攻击并未达成这个目标.只有2个Gmail帐号被攻入,但活动仅限于帐号信息(比如何时创建的Gmail帐号)和邮件标题栏,而邮件内容本身是安全的.

第三,作为本次调查中与谷歌被袭无关的部分,我们发现若干美国,中国和欧洲的倡导中国人权的Gmail用户的帐号经常性地被第三方访问.这些账户并未因谷歌的安全漏洞被进入,更可能通过钓鱼诈骗或在用户电脑上安插恶意软件实现.

我们利用从这次攻击中收集到的信息进行基础设施和竞购性的改进以加强谷歌和谷歌用户的安全.

我们采取非同寻常的措施:与广大受众分享有关近期袭击的信息.因为我们发掘出事件的安全和人权方面的意义,也因为这些信息直指全球范围内关于言论自由辩论的核心.过去20年,中国的经济改革和中国公民的企业家才能帮数亿中国人走出贫困.这个伟大的国家的确是当今世界经济发展进步的中心.

为中国人民增加接触信息途径和一个更开放的互联网带来的益处压倒了我们对删减搜索结果的不适,带着这个信念,我们在2006年1月开办了Google.cn.当时我们澄清”我们会小心监察中国的状况,包括新的法律和其他对我们服务的限制.如果我们认定我们无法达成实现勾勒出的目标,我们会毫不犹豫地重新考虑进入中国的方式.”

近日的袭击和这些袭击所暴露的监视行为,以及和过去一年里进一步限制网上自由言论的努力,使我们做出结论:我们应该重新审视我们在华业务的可行性.我们决定我们不再自愿删减Google.cn的搜索结果,未来几周我们会和中国政府讨论在法律范围内我们以何种基础来经营一个未经过滤的搜索引擎,如果谷歌还在中国有搜索引擎业务的话.我们清楚这可能意味着不得不关闭Google.cn,还可能撤出在中国的办公室.

这个决定对我们异常艰难,我们清楚这决定意义深远.我们想要澄清这次行动由谷歌在美国的管理人员推动,谷歌在中国的雇员并无知晓和参与.他们用难以置信的努力使Google.cn成为今天的成功.我们将专注于负责任地解决这些棘手的问题.

First of all, I applaud Google’s decision to fight the Chinese government on the issue of search censorship; however, I don’t see China backing down on the censorship issue and I don’t see Google completely pulls its operations from China.  It would be interesting to see how this plays out.

On a side note, this is just despicable:

The search term was Tiananmen (天安门) and the note at the end of the search page translates to: Due to local government regulations, some results are not shown.

It turned out the “flower” and “blossom” is not the blue roses but atomic bomb explosions.  At the end of the post, the post stated:

这花很漂亮吧？唉，咱中国，就是每办法开得了啊。呵呵……晓得他日本是咋么个开发的呵？同志们，是爱国青年的支持支持，在这里谢谢了。
Translation: Aren’t these flowers beautiful?  Too bad China will never see them bloom on its soil.  Haha…don’t know how the Japanese developed them.  Comrades, support this post if you are a patriotic youth, thank you.

At the end of the post, the author listed a few options for the readers to vote on, and they are:

Many posts/votes on Kaixin001 are advocating killing the Japanese by so-called “爱国人士” or patriots.  Most of these “patriots” are born in the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s. 

Why the Hate?

According to Matthew Forney, the hate is learned and taught in schools and in the media.

Chinese kids can be forgiven for thinking Japan is a nation of “devils,” a slur used without embarrassment in polite Chinese society. They were raised to feel that way, and not just through cartoons. Starting in elementary school children learn reading, writing and the “Education in National Humiliation.” This last curriculum teaches that Japanese “bandits” brutalized China throughout the 1930s and would do so today given half a chance. Although European colonial powers receive their share of censure, the main goal is keeping memories of Japanese conquest fresh. Thousands of students each day, for instance, take class trips to the Anti-Japanese War Museum in Beijing to view grainy photos of war atrocities—women raped and disemboweled, corpses of children stacked like cordwood. As one 15-year-old girl in a blue and yellow school uniform, Ji Jilan, emerged from a recent visit to the gallery, she told a TIME correspondent: “After seeing this, I hate Japanese more than ever.”

Has Anything You’ve Done Made Your Life Better?

I remember a scene from the movie American History X where Bob Sweeney, teacher and mentor of the incarcerated Derek Vinyard, ask Vinyard to ask the right question:

There was a moment… when I used to blame everything and everyone… for all the pain and suffering and vile things that happened to me, that I saw happen to my people. Used to blame everybody. Blamed white people, blamed society, blamed God. I didn’t get no answers ’cause I was asking the wrong questions. You have to ask the right questions…Has anything you’ve done made your life better?

Perhaps these so-called patriots should ask the same question, has anything they’ve done made the relationship between China and Japan better?  Has anything they’ve done improved the relationship between the two people?  Ignorant hate is just a waste of time that will not better anyone.

I don’t care why China is blocking Google, but I’m innocent (I promise) and this punishment on Google have indirectly affected millions of people.

So here’s my promise to the Chinese government if they unblock Google for me:

1. I promise NOT to search for politically sensitive keywords;
2. I promise NOT to search for “unhealthy” materials;
3. I promise NOT to search about that Gate in the middle of Beijing;
4. I promise NOT to search about that man in exile in India;
5. I promise NOT to search about that “law wheel gong”;
6. Finally, I promise NOT to search for anything that might hurt the feelings of China.

OK now, would you pretty please with cherry on top, open your gate and let Google in?

• Green Dam Youth Escort software
• 10,000 Volunteers that Monitor Internet Content
• Spiritual Civilization Office
• China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center

These are just some of the known methods that the government uses to control the information on the Internet.

The recent decision by the Chinese government to install preinstall censorship software on all computers sold in China has enraged the Chinese Internet users as well as computer makers.

According to the New York Times

“Many people say the software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, will be used to block Web sites with politically unacceptable content, even though officials insist that the software will be used primarily to censor pornography…trade groups representing major American computer makers, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell, which have significant market shares in China, have been asking the Chinese government to rescind the requirement that Green Dam be preinstalled on computers but have seen no change in the Chinese position.”

My thoughts:

The more you exercise your control over the people, the more the people will exercise their innate will to break free; this is a snow ball effect and the only solution is to strike a balance that is satisfactory to both sides.  If the government wants to protect the moral of its citizens by blocking pornagraphy on the Internet, it should trust its citizens by showing we are confident of our people, we will let them decide what they want to see and not see.  Basically, if someone wants to watch porn really bad, no software or hardware is going to block them.  By telling its citizens “we don’t trust you, and we want to treat you like little kids by preinstalling software that is going to control on you access the Internet you paid for” then no wonder computer users are angry.

If the government want to protect the underage kids then I want to ask “Isn’t that the job of the parents?”

More thoughts:

The money spent on these censorship software and hardware could be used for other more meaningful purpose like building schools, improve infrastructure, improve medicare, etc.  It’s funny how what the people really want from the government is insufficiently provided while what the people don’t want or care from the government is done in overabundance.

I realize:

I realize China had make great progress in making more information free and available to everyone but sometimes stupid stuff like this Green “Damn” Dam just makes you mad and ask what are they thinking?  Although I’m a foreigner in China, I still pay taxes and the tax money goes into developing these crazy useless software is just maddening.

Let’s Hope:

Let’s hope the government doesn’t make it mandatory for us to install the software inorder to go online.  That would be scary.

More than 85% of the Chinese public are satisfied with government measures to prevent the spread of the A/H1N1 flu, according to a survey.  The online survey of 15002 people by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily found 62% of the public believe more people will cultivate hygienic habits in light of the flu virus, while 41% believe the public’s sense of responsibility will improve.

Online surveys are rarely accurate because the respondents are not randomly picked from a population.  Instead, certain conditions must exists in order for the people participating in the online survey to cast their vote.

The survey that China Youth Daily conducted needed these requirements from the respondents:

1. Must have computer
2. Must have Internet access
3. Must know about the QTick website
4. Must be a registered member in order to vote

When these conditions are met, he/she is able to vote on issue presented by the China Youth Daily.

How the survey data by the China Youth Daily is unreliable:

According to CIA’s 2008 figures, there are 253 million Internet users in China, that’s only about 19% of the entire Chinese population.  Moreover, the QTick website has a Google PageRank of 3, which is relatively low and is an indication of its relatively low “importance.”

Only registered members of QTick are elegible to participate in the survey and not all visitors to QTick register as a member.  Moreover, registration requires users to provide their real name, this will deter more users from registering; this also lowers the accuracy of the survey, which should be conducted anonymously, where the participant is not affraid to provide what they really think.

Although the sample size is quite large (15002) but the survey takers are not randomly picked from the overall population.  People to take this survey actively seeked out this survey (because they need to know the address of the survey site, register as a member, and provide their real name).  The result, therefore, can hardly represent the Chinese population, which is what China Daily is trying to claim.

A more accurate statement concerning this survey would be:

“85% of Chinese Internet users who regularly visite QTick and are registered members are satisfied with government measurs to prevent the spread of the A/H1N1 flu.”

A~ B~ C~ D~ E~ F~ G~~

H~ I~ J~ K~ L M N O P~~

Q~ R~ S~~ T~ U~ V~~

W~~ X~~ Y~ and Z~~

Now I know my ABCs.

Next time won’t you sing with me!

While here’s another version, rock and roll version, sang by a chubby (and some what cute) Chinese:

Gmail China

Gmail or Google Mail is a mail service that I use everyday.  So when I heard about Gmail China (Gmail 中国) I thought it’s Google’s email service tailored to the Chinese market.  Boy was I wrong.

Gmail China is operated by “爱思美（北京）信息科技有限公司”, an Internet service provider that offer services such as domain name registration and management, web hosting, website design, enterprise email service, blog service, photo service, and SNS.

Here’s their copyright notice:

著作权
爱思美中国、GMAIL中国、GMAIL.CN、中国核电信息网著作权均属于爱思美（北京）信息科技有限公司（以下简称“爱思美”）。爱思美保留网站上独立拥有相关内容（包括但不限于文字、图片、音频、视频资料以及页面设计、编排、计算机软件及名称）版权和其他知识产权。

商标
爱思美、ISM、Gmail、Heneng.net.cn、1997.cn 文字、字母或图形的商标或注册商标以及软件名称权受中华人民共和国著作权和商标权等知识产权保护，违反上述声明而给爱思美造成损失的，爱思美将依法追究其法律责任。

For those who can’t read Chinese, the statement above simply states Gmail China, the Gmail name, the Gmail dot cn domain name, pictures and colors are copyrighted and are under the protection of the Chinese Copyright Law.

What a pile of crap!