Some recent China-based cyber attacks on Google have put a strain on an already tense business relationship between Google and China. On January 12th, Google reported that itself and several other companies had been the victim of a China-based cyber attack in December, resulting in the theft of some intellectual property. Google said that their own investigation suggested that the attack was targeting the accounts of human rights activists in China.

In response, Google announced that it would be “reconsidering” its approach to business in China. Google also stated that it is no longer willing to censor its search results to comply with Chinese censorship laws and acknowledged that this action may result in Google's exit from China all together.

It's hard to tell exactly what Google's motives are with this move. After all, assuming the Chinese government was not involved in the attacks, is China really responsible for protecting foreign companies from cyber attacks from within Chinese borders? Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal further points out that Google leaving China would not help to protect Google's U.S. servers from any further attacks. The message Google is sending doesn't seem to be that China must better control its hackers if Google is to stay in China. Instead, it seems that the attacks are the last straw for Google, which was already uncomfortable with censoring Google.cn. Google has received a lot of criticism since it agreed to comply with China's censorship laws in the first place. Some critics have said that agreeing to censor Google.cn goes against Google's moral code of “Don't be evil.” Google has maintained, however, that providing some access to Chinese citizens, even if censored, is better than providing nothing at all.

After an attack on human rights activists, of all people, Google seems to be saying enough is enough. Google doesn't claim that leaving China will make data more secure from attacks. Google simply says it is “no longer willing” to continue censoring. Compromising its values to provide some search results to China no longer seems worth it if the accounts of Chinese citizens are simultaneously being compromised by hackers.

An interesting quote from an English newspaper in China read, “Whatever the real cause for Google’s possible move, this case is purely business in nature and it should have nothing to do with political ideology. If this Internet giant has political values, it should never have been involved in such a business.” I think it's clear that Google's values are vital part of their business, and that at least for now the internet is a better place because of those values. It will be interesting to see the response of Chinese citizens, particularly those who are Google users, to what seems to be Google's inevitable departure from the Chinese internet.

-Natalie is a blogger for The New View. Check out her bio to see where her view comes from.

Sources

A new approach to China, Official Google Blog.

China, Google, and the Cloud Wars, The Wall Street Journal.

The Google-China Challenge:  How It Came to This, PC World.

China Paints Google Issue as Not Political, The New York Times.