Google China Closes After Censorship Talks Fail

Today google.cn is no longer active. Google has closed it's China site after talks about removing the censorship requirement for the China site failed. Instead, the Google.cn domain now redirects to google.com.hk, the Hong Kong site, which does not have censored search results.

Google.com.hk will offer uncensored Chinese-language search services. These services will most probably not be available very long to Chinese citizens living in mainland China--as the Chinese government will mostly certainly block unfiltered search sites.

This move by Google represents a strong statement by the search industry leader against the Chinese Government. In addition to opposing censorship, Google has also claimed that the Chinese Government may be behind the hacker attacks against it's Gmail service and numerous other US companies recently. The Chinese Government deny any involvement.