Google have indicated
they might cease operations in China, following what appear to be attempts by the Chinese security services to hack Gmail accounts of dissidents, and continued censoring of Google search results:
We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that "we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China."
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China. (1)
Google were naive to think that appeasing the authorities in the PRC would lead to more freedom. At least they are realising their error.
1 - "A New Approach to China," posted by David Drummond on the Official Google Blog, 12th of January, 2010. (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html)
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