Caijing on The Countdown To Google’s Departure From China

• Posted by bbishop
• on March 15th, 2010

The latest issue of Caijing has a long article on Google China entitled “Google China’s Countdown” (谷歌中国倒计时). The bulk of the article is in Chinese, with a very brief English summary here. Caijing will likely translate this in its entirety soon.

Some of the key points:

1. Google enlisted former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft to write a letter to then PRC Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong expressing Google’s desire to engage in direct discussions with the Chinese government. In a somewhat ironic twist given Google’s stated position, Ambassador Scowcroft was President George H.W. Bush’s secret emissary to Beijing less than a month after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre;

2. After the receipt of the Scowcroft letter, Chinese officials and Google agreed to meet secretly during the Davos conference. Google CEO Eric Schmidt met on January 27 with representatives from the State Council Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both sides reiterated their positions and no progress was made;

3. The second meeting was in Beijing, between Ross LaJeunesse, a representative from Google HQ, and officials from the Chinese government, including those present at the first meeting in Davos. As Caijing’s translation explains:

Employees of Google China were not included in the meetings; this arrangement prevents coherence and understanding during talks, and Google’s “American Cowboy” image destroyed what little chance for reconciliation that was present.

At this meeting Google gave as their final deadline March 31st, after which they would no longer filter search results on Google.cn;

4. March 31 is the deadline for the renewal of Google China’s Internet Content Provider (ICP) license; without an ICP you can not operate a web site in China, but to have one you must agree to abide by China’s rules and regulations, including content filtering.

It sounds there has not been much “negotiating” over the last eight weeks. As I wrote yesterday, Google now most likely needs to decides how they manage the exit from China.

I’ll post the full translation once it is published.

In the meantime you can follow my more frequent updates on Twitter @niubi

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