US blamed for Google's decision to reroute traffic

Beijing: Google's decision to redirect mainland users to an uncensored Hong Kong site is a "deliberate plot" to promote the "intrusive strategy" of the US under the guise of supporting a free internet, a researcher affiliated with China's Cabinet wrote.

"The search engine leader's exit from the Chinese mainland is a deliberate plot," Ding Yifan, a researcher at the Development Research Centre under China's State Council, wrote in an editorial in yesterday's English-language China Daily.

"Google's case is in essence part of the US internet intrusive strategy worldwide under the excuse that it advocates a free internet."

Google this week stopped self-censoring its Chinese web site and shifted search services from the country onto an unfiltered Hong Kong site, an act criticised as "totally wrong" by China. The move was aimed at resolving a standoff with authorities over censorship that drew comments from the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and strained US ties with China.

Ding said the withdrawal was a part of "Washington's political games with China".

"We have taken note that some public opinion have said that," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang told reporters yesterday when asked if the US government was behind the Google move. "On this question you should refer to the US side and see how they react to that."

Ding's comments stand in contrast to those of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, which on March 23 sought to distance Google's actions this week from politics.

"I can't see it having an impact on China-US relations unless someone wants to politicise this," Qin said then.

Clinton said last week that Google's decision about whether to pull out of China "is really between Google and China".

Google said on January 12 it would stop censoring results following cyber attacks on its systems that originated in China. Clinton, urging China to investigate the hacks, called on US technology companies to resist censorship of the internet and said perpetrators of cyber attacks such as those who targeted Google must face consequences.

Clinton's remarks were hypocritical, state-run Xinhua News Agency said at the time, citing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Accusations that China had been behind the hacks were groundless, Xinhua said, adding that the US was "pointing one's finger" at others "without proper justification".

Li Yizhong, minister of industry and information technology, earlier this month said Google would be "unfriendly and irresponsible" if it went ahead with its pullout threat.

"The company will have to bear the related results" Li said. "I hope Google will abide by Chinese laws and regulations."

Mountain View, California-based Google said in a blog post earlier this week that it believes "this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we‘ve faced — it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China."

Beijing (Bloomberg) China Unicom's (Hong Kong) boycott of Google's search engine signals the fallout from the US company's defiance of government censorship is spreading, analysts said.

Unicom doesn't use Google search boxes on its phones and only works with companies that abide by Chinese law, President Lu Yimin told reporters yesterday in Hong Kong. On March 23, billionaire Li Ka-shing's Tom Online Inc said it stopped using Google on its portal. "If you were partnering with Google in China, your business plans have just fallen apart," Bertram Lai, head of research at CIMB-GK Securities in Hong Kong, said by phone.

In the US, Go Daddy Group, the world's largest registrar of domain names, said on Wednesday it's refusing to offer new site identities in China, citing increased internet spying by the government on its citizens.