Google reroutes China web traffic

Having previously threatened to withdraw its services, Google today begun redirecting internet traffic from mainland China to its servers in Hong Kong.

In a statement, the internet giant said it will no longer censor its search service on Google.cn. The company, which is the world's leading search engine, also said it would  monitor and publicise any attempts at censorship of the site by the Chinese government.

Users visiting the company's Chinese site from today are automatically being redirected to Google.com.hk where they are offered unfiltered search results.

China said Google had violated a "written promise" and was "totally wrong" to end censorship, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Google said it hoped the Chinese government would respect its decision but added that it had created the new web page so as to avoid attempts to block access to services by the authorities.

Google launched its Chinese-language website in 2006 and agreed to comply with local laws requiring censorship.

The decision by Google to reroute its services is not totally unexpected and comes after several months of negotiations with the Chinese authorities. The search giant caused something of a stir in January when it said it had uncovered sophisticated China-based attacks on human rights activists using its Gmail service around the world.

Google said other firms had also been affected, and after checks into the attacks, the firm announced it was no longer willing to tolerate censorship on its search engine. Google also threatened to shut its China offices.

"Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement," the company said in a statement.

"We believe 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," it added.

The company said it intended to continue with its R&D work in China and to maintain a sales presence there, though it added the size of the salesforce would be partly dependent on the ability of mainland Chinese users to access Google.com.hk.

Google’s decision to stop censoring its Chinese search engine was immediately welcomed by Human Rights Watch which described it as "a strong step in favour of freedom of expression and information."

The organisation called on other technology companies to follow Google’s example and end all their censorship of politically sensitive information.

“This is a crucial moment for freedom of expression in China, and the onus is now on other major technology companies to take a firm stand against censorship,” said Arvind Ganesan, business and human rights director at Human Rights Watch