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The change of heart announced Tuesday heralds a major shift for the
Internet's search leader, which has repeatedly said it will obey Chinese
laws requiring some politically and socially sensitive issues to be blocked
from search results available in other countries. The acquiescence had
outraged free-speech advocates and even some shareholders, who argued
Google's cooperation with China violated the company's "don't be evil"
motto.
The criticism had started to sway Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who openly
expressed his misgivings about the company's presence in China.
But the tipping point didn't come until Google recently uncovered hacking
attacks launched from within China. The apparent goals: breaking into the
computers of at least 20 major U.S. companies and gathering personal
information about dozens of human rights activists trying to shine a light
on China's alleged abuses.
Google spokesman Matt Furman declined to say whether the company suspects
the Chinese government may have had a hand in the attacks.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Google allegations "raise
very serious concerns and questions" and the U.S. is seeking an explanation
from the Chinese government.
Google officials also plan to talk to the Chinese government to determine if
there is a way the company can still provide unfiltered search results in
the country. If an agreement can't be worked out, Google is prepared to
leave China four years after creating a search engine bearing China's Web
suffix, ".cn" to put itself in a better position to profit from the world's
most populous country.
"The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly
hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences,"
David Drummond, Google's top lawyer, wrote in a Tuesday blog posting.
A spokesman for the Chinese consulate in San Francisco had no immediate
comment.
Abandoning China wouldn't put a big dent in Google's earnings, although it
could crimp the company's growth as the country's Internet usage continues
to rise. China's Internet audience already has soared from 10 million to
nearly 340 million in the past decade.
Google, based in Mountain View, said its Chinese operations account for an
"immaterial" amount of its roughly $22 billion in annual revenue. J.P.
Morgan analyst Imran Khan had been expecting Google's China revenue to total
about $600 million this year.
Although Google's search engine is the most popular worldwide, it's a
distant second in China, where the homegrown Baidu.com processes more than
60 percent of all requests.
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