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Google’s action to embarrass the Chinese over human rights will go down in history as one of the “dumbest” moves ever. In the process, it offended the Chinese government and the Chinese people and put itself at the mercy of the Chinese. It shows the height of ignorance and foolishness of its management who incidentally claim to be smart.
Google has taken its business problem and turned it into a political issue. Google is doing this to escalate it to a level where the U.S. government, other governments, human rights organization and other organizations will see it as a common axe to grind with the Chinese and get involved, because Google can’t take on China on its own.
Google alleges that sophisticated Chinese hackers (probably kids) were targeting its infrastructure to gain access to gmail accounts of human rights activists. Apparently, 20 other companies were targeted but none of them have come forward alleging that the Chinsese government was looking for email addresses of human rights activists. Sounds to me like the allegation about the Chinese looking for gmail addresses was just made up to get everyone rallying around Google and to collectively pressure China. Well, it failed badly.
The time for human rights was when it went to China. At that time, it cut a deal with the Chinese government because they had $$$$ signs in their eyes. China is the largest internet market with 300 million internet users and it would be suicidal for any company to not have a presence there. Google has been doing business in China since 2000 and opened offices there in 2004. It agreed to comply with Chinese rules in order to do business in China. Two years ago Google had a another chance when a motion was proposed at the annual Google stockholders meeting that would have marked a ringing endorsement of human rights put forward by New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson (a big pension fund that is a major Google shareholder), then Google’s board led by Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, urged shareholders to vote it down and they won with the help of big funds including American Funds, Vanguard Group, T. Rowe Price Group. (Full Story - No Heros At Google)
So why now talk about human rights and “do no evil” when it was fine before? Simple. Google is discovering that it cannot win in China. Google is not the preferred choice of the Chinese people. It may be because Google’s technology is inferior to Baidu’s in organizing Chinese language web pages or maybe the word “Google” does not ring the same way as “Baidu” does or a combination. The bottom line is Google is not winning in China so they are embarrassing the Chinese over human right issues and blaring “do no evil” to get world sympathy and preferential treatment so they can get a bigger share of the market and make more money. (BBC commnets - ‘Just quit. We don’t care.’)
China for its part is not perfect. It needs to improve its human and animal rights policy. However, in my opinion China has been a force for good. It has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty, all Chinese have free education and health care, which is one of the best in the world. China has invested more in Africa than the U.S. and all it colonizers combined going back a hundred years. It was the first country on the scene to help the starving Ethiopians in the 1980s, yet it took no glory nor did it hog the media spot light. China was also the first on the scene in Haiti. It was China that called for a minute of silence at the United Nations for the Haitian earthquake victims, not any of the western nations that preach human rights – because there is no money to be made in Haiti. In fact, after the Iraq War few nations have the privilege to tell China about human rights. (This is not pro China – just facts.)
If Google is serious about “do no evil” they should start at home. They should provide a better working environment for its workers. Google’s employees are the one of the lowest paid in the industry. They should stop promoting elitism and embrace meritocracy. They should stop hiring and sponsoring racists. If your product is inferior let the better man win – don’t shamefully hog the headlines over “do no evil” when that day belonged to the voiceless, poverty stricken Haitians in their hour of need. In fact, if you are serious about human rights, donate all your sales from this month to the Haitian earthquake victims – then, we will see how much you care about human rights.
Google has put itself in a position where it will have to exit the Chinese market if there is no concession from the Chinese government. Let’s see if Google has the guts to make good on its threat to leave China. Many industry analysts believe the punishment will be harsh and severe and it will leave Google in a diminished position and the world will see that its “do no evil” motto was always just a marketing gimmick.
Channels: china, do no evil, google, human rights
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Wow! well done. Great post. Thank you. I knew Google was really evil.
Comment by Randy S — January 15, 2010 @ 7:21 PM
This is was a seriously fundamental error. It sets the stage for their demise. Hope they get a SEVERE pounding and get obliterated int o bits.
Comment by tom — January 15, 2010 @ 7:32 PM
Well, it is well known that China has an active policy to steal technology and replicate them with home grown products.
Personally I believe it is really short-sighted to operate factories that deal with sensitive technologies in China. You get a big market, and cheap labor due to a fixed exchange rate — but you lose your product and create a competitor.
Comment by John — January 15, 2010 @ 7:34 PM
Some Americans seem to have a history of being naive and this article shows it (plus read the book referred to here to see how the Americans endorsed the Communist revolution in the 1930s). The Chinese have a strategy, in fact they more or less invented what strategy means. The Chinese will win wars, Americans will win battles. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/jun/04/featu...
Comment by Chairman Meow — January 15, 2010 @ 7:36 PM
Their competitors should use this opportunity to seize up on them. Google got a lucky break and rode it to the max. Now the going gets tough they will start falling apart.
Comment by p d stevens — January 15, 2010 @ 7:38 PM
What an incredible China apologist post. China's industrial espionage goes back decades. Yet no one has had the stones to stand up to the government. Yes, Baidu has the majority market share in China, but Google stands to lose a huge future revenue stream by taking a stand. Who cares what humanitarian good China is doing around the world. Systematic censorship is a completely different issue. Your post blurs all of these questions. Whatever the reasons for standing up to China; political, economic, moral, marketing, image, etc., the fact is that a major global organization took a stand. To belittle that because you are simply pro-China is a transparently flawed argument
Comment by Malcolm — January 15, 2010 @ 7:43 PM
Ouuuuuuch! Google boys pulled down their panties for China now they do no like the pounding they are getting.
Comment by torontino italiano — January 15, 2010 @ 7:43 PM
Agreed! Google as a distant second place in China market simply could not win.
Comment by Chang — January 15, 2010 @ 7:47 PM
Laughable Article! I am no fan of Google but the author is making baseless statements: "Chinese have free education and health care, which is one of the best in the world.", Really? I am surprised you left out how the Chinese government is also the best in the world for their environmental policies. Please recalibrate your bias if you are claiming to be neutral.
Comment by Vasu S — January 15, 2010 @ 7:47 PM
"China for its part is not perfect but if has been a force for good. It has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty, all Chinese have free education and health care, which is one of the best in the world." Now that's a ridiculous comment. China is not perfect and is a force for good?! I assume you mean the Chinese gov't, which has an atrocious human rights record. And (some of) the Chinese people have lifted *themselves* out of poverty *despite* the Chinese gov't (think of Taiwan and Hong Kong for validation). There is certainly no best-on-the-planet health care for the over 1 billion people who live there. And from literacy rate alone, this quality educational system you speak of is certainly not universal.
Comment by Christian — January 15, 2010 @ 8:04 PM
Yes, what a screw up. Google really f*cked up. The human right angle was the wrong one to take.
Comment by jen baisinger — January 15, 2010 @ 8:16 PM
I usually don't make any comments but this guy is so great that the truth is just spell out writer's mouth. I can't agree with him more. Feel shame and sorry for Google even I am a fan of Google.
Comment by So Bad — January 15, 2010 @ 8:16 PM
This can be viewed and possibly is another example of a US corporation interfering and meddling in another countries laws. The Chinese know, and the rest of the world should know, how the US interfered directly in their country a little over 60 years ago. I don't like censorship as much as the next guy, and the situation in China will change, but it needs to change at its own pace. A US corporation and US individuals spitting the dummy because they didn't get their own way, is not the way to do it. Do Americans expect the rest of the world to obey them?
I like Google, but in this case this is a mistake. Chinese local companies will take up the slack and another US corporation will gladly step in, ie Microsoft. So Google, tread carefully, a 'slow burn approach' is the best.
Comment by zac — January 15, 2010 @ 8:18 PM
Google's move reminds the oft repeated story about the girl who chose to do favors for geld, but finding the pickings slim for one reason or another, now demands her virtue back plus the the admiration of the community. But it was the first deed that defined what she was and is.
Comment by shu shen — January 15, 2010 @ 8:20 PM
This is the response of the Chinese Government: “Our country is at a crucial stage of reform and development, and this is a period of marked social conflicts,” said Wang, whose comments appeared on the Information Office’s website. “Properly guiding Internet opinion is a major measure for protecting Internet information security.”
Remember that last line: “Properly guiding Internet opinion is a major measure for protecting Internet information security.”
So they hacked Gmail.
Comment by Google Fan — January 15, 2010 @ 8:32 PM
Google is Hyping human rights because it is losing. Would they do the same if they were in a leadership position in China?
Comment by Joanna H — January 15, 2010 @ 8:36 PM
Fucking Chinese.
Comment by none — January 15, 2010 @ 8:43 PM
While Google wasn’t leading the market, they were in second and did have a large market share. They numbers were going up steadily while Baidu’s were headed down. Common sense says that it would be time to stay in, not time to leave.
Comment by Peter C — January 15, 2010 @ 8:44 PM
they only have 20% of the market that is what this is all about
Comment by marketshare — January 15, 2010 @ 8:45 PM
Did you know that Chinese business men were chaning laborers in Africa and enslaving them?
Comment by baidu — January 15, 2010 @ 8:50 PM
For four years, Google complied with the Chinese government’s demands that they censor search results. It did this in the hope of becoming the number one search engine in China, a goal it failed to achieve. You can argue – reasonably – that there’s nothing wrong with Google operating under the laws of a country, much as eBay is banned from listing Nazi memorabilia in Germany. Self-censorship is the cost of doing business in China, and it’s a price that Google decided was worth paying. Or you can take completely the opposite view: calling Google evil for ever setting foot in Beijing.
But whatever your view, you have to accept that Google spent four years, and earned vast sums of money, operating under China’s censorship laws. And now only when they suffer an attack that threatens to damage their business worldwide – “What? The communists can hack my Gmail?” – have they suddenly found a conscience.
This may be a case of scorched-earth diplomacy on the part of Google, it may just be pure retaliation against a government which tried to hack their servers or it may be a shrewd business move dressed up as “taking a stand”. But what it’s absolutely not is a “moral position”
Comment by from techcrunch — January 15, 2010 @ 8:56 PM
Flowers for a funeral – that is the title of the economist article on Google's China blunder http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory….
Comment by Economist Story — January 15, 2010 @ 8:57 PM
(1) Google did this for money which it was not getting and
(2) Google did this due to China's plundering American technology and intellectual property for their own good and
(3) China is not a saint re: health care, treating business or their citizens or their "Tibetans" well. The leadership is harsh, driven and increasingly financially motivated.
(4) As above China is in Africa for the minerals and oil only and to manipulate and control as western civilizations also (wrongly did)
(5) America is rarely selfless focusing on encouraging their companies to earn profits and China does it less for profit than for egotistical nationalism pride
Comment by Richard — January 15, 2010 @ 9:20 PM
Every five years, the Chinese government updates a 50-year plan. You think they care about small blips that span even a decade or two? The US hasn't grown up yet. We haven't learned to think long-term, or strategically. At the moment this broke, picking up marbles and going home was the last thing we should've done, and the best thing China could've hoped for. GOOG's been played.
Comment by Sam — January 15, 2010 @ 10:12 PM
you narrow minded racist idiot – wake up
Comment by baba ton — January 15, 2010 @ 10:40 PM
I think China has been exposed, no point blaming on Google. How long can China suppress it's own people. To me it is the most dangerous time bomb which if explode could be worst then any thing we have seen in the history. Unless Chinese Govt. recognizes the basis human need of being able to freely express and take corrective action, some day this can explode real bad.
Comment by Jung Lee — January 15, 2010 @ 10:44 PM
John,
It is not stealing when a business chooses to do business there agrees to the government terms which is to share their technologies. A business has a choice.
Comment by michael — January 15, 2010 @ 11:01 PM
and name-calling is a better argument? or is your unfounded assumption that Google will win in the future a better one?
Comment by michael — January 15, 2010 @ 11:09 PM
1. Love Google's stand on this, regardless of their bending over earlier. Also, Love Google's search service.
2. What China is doing is evil.
3. Before we get too deep into criticizing others, realize that our govt here in the US can and do see your online activity by _law_. Remember Carnivore? and Total Information Management? Don't know what the status of those are, but they are there, and many would argue they are necessary in today's world. (I tend to agree with that.)
4. Google follows us around as well — ostensibly to help them with better search results. The problem is they also store all that data — and supposedly they never destroy them. Google said they will not do any evil with it. Perhaps so. However, now what happens given their network has been broken into?
It's complicated!
Comment by a reader — January 16, 2010 @ 1:39 AM
do not evil my ass! this is about money
Comment by anon — January 15, 2010 @ 7:35 PM
Wow… excellent article…this is what i thought all along.
Google should not be praised for what it has done…it should be ashamed and say sorry for their mistake for going to china in the first place and then saying ” do no evil”
Google got slapped ..usually it was other way around ..
Comment by dust bin boy — January 15, 2010 @ 8:33 PM
You must be a bloody Chinese communist for writing this article. Your writing skills just endorse that fact.
Human rights suck in China and the only reason they help Africans is for the oil and minerals. Let us talk about aid they give to other countries WITHOUT expecting anything in return. ZILCH
Americans eeven in tough times have aided and helped everyone selflessly.
Comment by Anonymous — January 15, 2010 @ 8:57 PM
LOL Karma is a b*tch Google http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4308678.stm
Comment by Giggle — January 15, 2010 @ 9:09 PM
Google thinks they are the big bully.
Worldwide boycott Google
Pressure China for better human rights.
12 years prison for an innocent victim is way too harsh
Comment by Dennis Thompsen — January 16, 2010 @ 4:55 PM
First of all, do you honestly believe Google is money hungry? I know for a fact that this is not the case. Google has a country like China, to whom they provide the opportunity to give an endless platform of knowledge to and yet they still complied with the censorship rules and laws. This already goes against everything that Google stands for. Knowledge should be accessible to everyone. Dumbass China controls this for it's people and if you look at the top Shareholders of Baidu…..they are Chinese Government officials. Don't tell me that this isn't politically involved already. There is no competition because China would like to invest simply in their own. If you were a business owner and a country whom you provided your services to….disrespected your company and everything you believed in and tried to steal information from you and never apologized for it, I'm sure you would pull of out China as well. You talk as if you assume that Google did this because they couldn't win, however, you are completely wrong. Do you have any idea the time and effort that goes into restructuring the security systems that were breached? Do you have any idea how much a company has to spend in order to secure itself after something like this. No you have no idea. This article is so insane that you must remember all sides and understand that Google would never shoot its own foot unless they had to protect themselves.
I must also say, that a couple of years ago when Yahoo was in serious trouble with it's shareholders, Google stepped up to assist Yahoo. They worked together to keep Yahoo afloat. Look it up if you have to. This is a prime example that Google "doesn't do evil" (their motto). In fact they embrace their competition and Baidu doesn't fall close to the competition that they have here in Silicon Valley. So quit with all this foolish Pro-Chinese Government shit…
Comment by Lisa — January 17, 2010 @ 12:43 AM
I sent the following letter to Google on Dec 29, and wonder if it was the straw that broke the camel's back:
Dear Mr President,
Ref: Google maps in USA show Arunachal Pradesh as disputed territory, not part of India. In China they show Arunachal Pradesh as part of China
Google maps show Arunachal Pradesh as a disputed territory between Democratic Republic of India and successors of Communist Dictator Mao Tse Tung of China. In 1845 USA annexed California from Mexico following war. Arunachal Pradesh has had tribes and communities which were Buddhist and Hindu, and was annexed by the British in 1858, but there was no war.
All British, and most American maps (lonelyplanet.com, worldatlas.com, wikipedia etc) show Arunachal Pradesh as part of India.
Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and all the following Presidents were opposed to China's occupation of Tibet. They treated Tibet as a separate country and helped it with military support supplied through Nepal. They respected Nobel Laureate Dalai Lama and considered him to be the leader of Tibet, a separate country, not part of Mao Tse Tung’s Communist China. What Google Maps (US version) shows instead, is that Tibet is "integral" part of China, and Arunachal Pradesh- which is beyond Tibet in the south, is shown as disputed territory. Mao Tse Tung's successors in Communist China are racist in claiming that all national groups of Oriental race (including Taiwan and Japan) really ought to be ruled from Beijing, which it regards as the prime center of Oriental race. Google Maps should NOT subscribe to that theory. What is really disturbing is that Google Maps within China shows Arunachal Pradesh as part of China (not disputed), in addition to just Tibet. You should have a discussion with your Maps department to change all this.
Arunachal Pradesh, like Tibet was mostly Buddhist. Chinese Communist military attacks of the 1950s under Mao Tse Tung seized Tibet. But Arunachal Pradesh remained part of India, and in recent election in 2009 elected a government by democratic process, with a 70% voting percentage of its electorate. This is clear evidence that there is no dispute in the minds of residents of Arunachal Pradesh about their borders, their loyalty and their traditions. In 2009, Dalai Lama, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other important leaders visited Arunachal Pradesh despite some Chinese protestations.
Comment by vkmo — January 17, 2010 @ 2:58 AM
I agree with you. This is a really dumb thing some american businesses are doing. At the same time, they are hindering companies like Google with censorship.
Comment by vkmo — January 18, 2010 @ 4:32 AM
It is all about market share. In the search space the leader get 90% of the revenue. In China that is Baidu. So even if Google has 30% of the market share it is getting less than 10% of the revenue. They are under pressure to increase revenue. No they shot themselves in the foot.
Comment by insider — January 20, 2010 @ 8:03 AM
I agree. I think a previous article by Chairman Meow also alludes to China strategic thinking. I am from the far east and I remember the pain that China was causing the US via Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. America buckled and they ended up on the most favored nation list and also a significant voice on the UN Security Council. China knows US's two party boxing match will keep the US from doing any long-term planning which gives the time to build its position around the world. Once its population moves up into the middle-class, with more educated they can then deal with issues like free-speech, and other freedoms. Just see how quickly they have embraced capitalism from the heady days of communism. GOOG, having participated in China in the first place looses credibility when it now tries to use the human-rights issue (walk-the-walk before talking-the-talk).
Comment by @mohan_ramanujam — January 25, 2010 @ 6:58 PM
Btw why is there no link on your site here to display comments by date of submission (i.e. newest-to-oldest and oldest-to-newest)? Kind of clunky without it. Also why do you insist on censoring comments before posting them? You'd be much more credible if you posted an inappropriate comment and censored it as such rather than the way you're doing it. If I don't see my comments, I can only imagine the other comments you're censoring as well. Good luck.
Comment by Bozo de Niro — March 4, 2010 @ 2:25 AM
No comment, but whoever wrote it, forgot to sign it, "Mao".
Comment by bozo — March 4, 2010 @ 1:57 AM