China blocks access as Google exits to HK

As soon as Google announced yesterday that it would stop censoring search results and shift its Chinese-language service to servers in Hong Kong, the Chinese government reacted immediately by using the firewalls to block access to certain searches.

With the two-month war of atrittion between the Chinese government and the Mountain View, California-based Google finding no resolution, the internet giant announced late last night that it had stopped censoring its search services, Google Search, Google News, and Google Images on Google.cn and was redirecting users to its servers in Hong Kong.

David Drummond, chief legal officer of Google said in a blogpost yesterday that Google.com.hk, will offer uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via Goolge's servers in Hong Kong.

In January, Google had threatened to exit from China, the world's biggest internet market, after a highly sophisticated and targeted cyber attack originating from China tried to break into the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. (See: Google threatens to exit China after cyber attacks)

Drummond had said at that time that Google detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on its corporate infrastructure originating from China in mid-December, which resulted in the theft of its intellectual property.

Refusing to bow any further to the strict censorship laws under which it is compelled to operate in China, Google had said it was ready to exit from the Chinese market, inwhich it has made its biggest investments.