Official Google Blog: An update on China
Ever since we launched Google.cn, our search engine for mainland Chinese users, we have done our best to increase access to information while abiding by Chinese law. This has not always been an easy balance to strike, especially since our January announcement that we were no longer willing to censor results on Google.cn.
We currently automatically redirect everyone using Google.cn to Google.com.hk, our Hong Kong search engine. This redirect, which offers unfiltered search in simplified Chinese, has been working well for our users and for Google. However, it’s clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable—and that if we continue redirecting users our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed (it’s up for renewal on June 30). Without an ICP license, we can’t operate a commercial website like Google.cn—so Google would effectively go dark in China.
That’s a prospect dreaded by many of our Chinese users, who have been vocal about their desire to keep Google.cn alive. We have therefore been looking at possible alternatives, and instead of automatically redirecting all our users, we have started taking a small percentage of them to a landing page on Google.cn that links to Google.com.hk—where users can conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering. This approach ensures we stay true to our commitment not to censor our results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of our services from one page.
Over the next few days we’ll end the redirect entirely, taking all our Chinese users to our new landing page—and today we re-submitted our ICP license renewal application based on this approach.
As a company we aspire to make information available to users everywhere, including China. It’s why we have worked so hard to keep Google.cn alive, as well as to continue our research and development work in China. This new approach is consistent with our commitment not to self censor and, we believe, with local law. We are therefore hopeful that our license will be renewed on this basis so we can continue to offer our Chinese users services via Google.cn.
Posted by David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
关于谷歌中国的最新声明
2010 年 6 月 28 日
David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
自从为中国大陆用户推出 Google.cn 这个 搜索引擎以来，我们一直在尽最大的努力来提高用户对信息的访问，同时遵守中国法律。做到这样的平衡并不容易，尤其是我们在今年1月份宣布不愿意继续在 Google.cn 上对搜索结果进行审查。
当前，我们把所有访问 Google.cn 的用户自动指向了我们香港的搜索引擎 Google.com.hk，通过这种方 法，我们可以提供未经审查的简体中文 搜索结果。目前这种方法无论对用户还是对 Google 都运行良好。然而，在与中国有关部门的沟通中我们明确获知：自动指向的做法是不可接受的。如果我们继 续进行自动指向，我们的 ICP 牌照将无法通过年检（年检截止时间是6月30日）。没有 ICP 牌照，我们将不能在中国运营 Google.cn 这样的商业网站——这意味着 Google.cn 将不能被访问。
那是许多 Google 中国用户所担忧的结果，因为他们都清楚表明了希望 Google.cn 继续运营的愿望。为此，我们开始寻找其他可能的替代办法，我们开始为一小部分用户提供一个新的 google.cn 访问页面，该页面与 Google.com.hk 链接，在那里，用户可以进行搜索，或继续使用在 google.cn 上的音乐搜索（Music Search）和文本翻译（Translate）等不涉及内容审查的服务。这个新做法确保 Google.cn 不对搜索结果进行审查的承诺，同时让用户可以在一个页面上访问我们所有的服务。
未来几天，我们将全部停止自动指向，让所有中国用户都直接访问这个新页面——今天，基于这样一个新页面，我们重新提交了 ICP 牌照年检申请。
作为一家公司，我们的追求是让用户随时随地访问到他们所需的信息，包括中国的用户。这就是为什么我们一直在努力地保持 Google.cn 的运营，以及继续我们在中国的研发工作。这个新做法确保了 Google.cn 不对搜索结果进行审查的承诺，并且，我们相信，符合中国法律。因此我们希望能够通过 ICP 牌照年检，让我们可以继续通过 Google.cn 为中国用户提供服务。