Google to Pull Out of China by April 10 Says New Report

Category: General News
Posted: March 19, 2010 12:33PM
Author: Nemo

Reports in Chinese media are saying that Google will announce Monday that it plans to pull out of China on April 10. The fight with China stems from attacks launched against Google that targeted mail accounts of Chinese activists. China has denied any involvement but Google threatened to withdraw from China earlier this year after announcing the attacks. With China's reputation on human rights Google came under sharp criticism when it originally agreed to censor search results at the behest of the Chinese government. With this move, Google stands to remove some of the tarnish from its image.

While not many companies have the power to go toe-to-toe against a major world-power like China, there are downsides to pulling out of a country that could one day be the dominant world economic power. Speculation amongst pundits is that Google may never be able to return to China or only under conditions where both Google and the Chinese government could reach a compromise where both sides appear to save face. In the meantime, Google stands to loose a great deal of revenue and the Chinese people loose a critical resource. The only silver lining in this cloud for Google is that this may increase public pressure on Microsoft who has clearly stated it has no intentions of leaving China.