Google’s Chinese Website Gets Approved
By Chris Weiss
I’m somewhat surprised to report that the Chinese government has approved Google’s ICP license renewal, so Google will continue to operate in the country.
Late last month, Google changed the way that it operates the Chinese version of its search engine–Google.cn. After tensions first began earlier this year, the company began rerouting Google.cn users to Google’s uncensored Hong Kong version in order to avoid Chinese censorship regulations. Needless to say, China wasn’t really happy with that move and it was looking like Google’s license was about to take a short trip into history. Google changed the landing page to include a link to the Hong Kong version rather than automatically re-routing users there and successfully appeased the Chinese government.
Seeing as how hard-line the Chinese government tends to be, I thought it was going to take a little more–like removing the Hong Kong link completely–to appease them, but it appears Google compromised just enough to squeak its license application on through.
So it looks like all is quiet in the Great Google/China Stand-Off of 2010. [via Reuters]
