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This is not the first time that Google’s China business, which started four years ago, has been accused. In January and April this year, CIIRC, China’s Internet watchdog, twice criticized Google for making pornography available through its search engine.

Although CIIRC, founded in 2004, is associated with China’s Internet Association, supposedly a non-governmental organization, it is supported by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Public Security. Therefore its allegations represent the official stand.

However, the charges seem to be dubious. Internet companies operating in China, including Google, are very self-disciplined in terms of content provision and management. For example, Google has a separate website, Google.cn, to filter out information that is considered politically incorrect to Chinese users. A user is always redirected to this website when accessing Google from inside China.

Under pressure from the Chinese government, Google also suppresses certain overseas-based websites from search results on its China page. And it has no reason to let pornography on the loose.

More noticeably, the entire Internet is monitored in China. The announcement that all new computers sold in China from July 1 must include Green Dam-Youth Escort, a web content filter, is the most recent effort in this regard. While there are always technologically savvy ways to circumvent China’s Internet “Great Wall,” it is difficult, if not impossible, for inappropriate material to escape censorship and to be accessed by ordinary Chinese.

In fact, search results using the same terms on Google and Baidu, the Chinese-language Internet search engine, and others turned out to be almost identical. Therefore the possibility cannot be excluded that the warning to Google is aimed at undermining its competitive position in Chinese-language search services. In fact, Google was singled out a couple of years ago when its competitors reported that Google’s search results had links to sensitive political content.

Google has witnessed rapid expansion of its Chinese business. A recent survey indicated that Google holds 33 percent of the Internet search market in China and is starting to challenge the leader, Baidu, which, while still holding some 60 percent of the market, has seen its market share sliding.

But with the suspension of Google’s foreign searches and automatic keywords feature, Chinese users will find their Internet search through Google significantly less efficient and even cumbersome. They might therefore turn to its competitors, which still offer similar services.

To make this debacle more disturbing, Google’s alleged links to pornography were exposed in a program on China Central Television called “Focus Interview,” in which the accuser was an intern at the state-owned television station.

In November 2008, CCTV criticized Baidu’s “immoral” ranking-bid business model, in which Baidu accepted money from problematic companies to block out search results that give them a negative image.

Afterwards, in the first quarter of 2009, Baidu paid the lion’s share of its advertising expenditure, 40 million yuan (US$5.6 million) to CCTV. State television then showed Baidu’s CEO frequently during its Spring Festival Gala, and even did soft advertisements for Baidu throughout the program, which was watched by the entire country on the eve of the Chinese New Year.

Google may have to do the same if it wants to build its reputation in China; however, it would be quite unfortunate if that happens.

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(Cong Cao is a senior research associate with the Neil D. Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce at the State University of New York. He received his PhD in sociology from Columbia University in 1997 and has worked at the University of Oregon and the National University of Singapore. Dr. Cao is interested in the social studies of science and technology with a focus on China. ©Copyright Cong Cao.)