Xenical online no rx overnight

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/13/AR2010011301168.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010011300360
China’s Google dilemma: Soften on censorship or xenical online no rx overnight anger millions of Internet users
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 14, 2010

BEIJING — Google’s threat to xenical online no rx overnight shut down its Chinese Web site and offices over cyberattacks and xenical online no rx overnight censorship puts the government here in the awkward position of having to xenical online no rx overnight choose between relaxing restrictions and raising the ire of the xenical online no rx overnight roughly 80 million Chinese people who use the search engine.

Few political and xenical online no rx overnight Internet analysts appear to doubt that China will stick to its tough stance and xenical online no rx overnight reject Google’s proposal to xenical online no rx overnight stop censoring search results on its Chinese sites. But Google’s audience of Chinese “netizens,” a few of whom placed flowers outside the company’s Beijing offices Wednesday, is xenical online no rx overnight large enough to make such a reaction risky.

“This would adversely affect a xenical online no rx overnight lot of people, not just the technorati elite that is xenical online no rx overnight Western-oriented anyway,” said Kaiser Kuo, an independent technology consultant. “The government could face a serious backlash this time.”

On Wednesday, the xenical online no rx overnight Google story was the top trending topic on a Twitter-like microblog on the xenical online no rx overnight Chinese site Sina.com, with about 60,000 people weighing in before the xenical online no rx overnight conversation was taken down. Most commenters expressed dismay at the xenical online no rx overnight prospect of losing Google’s China-based service; some lashed out at the xenical online no rx overnight government, while others begged Google to stay. A substantial minority wished the xenical online no rx overnight company good riddance.

“This will make the xenical online no rx overnight extent of Chinese censorship a lot clearer, even to ordinary Chinese people who xenical online no rx overnight are not aware of it,” said Jeremy Goldkorn, a xenical online no rx overnight China Internet specialist who posts on Sina’s blog site and xenical online no rx overnight runs a Web site called Danwei, which has been blocked since July.

“Many people think Google should negotiate with the Chinese government,” said Zhou Shuguang, a xenical online no rx overnight blogger who has done investigative reporting across the country. He added, though, that xenical online no rx overnight its withdrawal would lead more Chinese to discover that China lacks freedom on the xenical online no rx overnight Internet. “There are xenical online no rx overnight no benefits to people at all if Google continues to xenical online no rx overnight make concessions with Chinese authorities,” he said.

The government has xenical online no rx overnight backed down once in the face of outcries on the Internet. Last year, it xenical online no rx overnight attempted to require the makers of personal computers sold here to xenical online no rx overnight install Green Dam, a filtering software. But it reversed itself after widespread online protests that xenical online no rx overnight the software slowed down and damaged computers.

Still, businesspeople in Beijing were pessimistic Wednesday about the xenical online no rx overnight prospect of a crack in what is known as the xenical online no rx overnight Great Firewall of China. “China can’t lose face over this, and it’s not going to let anybody run an open search engine,” said an industry source close to Google.

The government has xenical online no rx overnight shut down or blocked thousands of Web sites. Twitter, YouTube and xenical online no rx overnight Facebook are all blocked. Just this week, the General Administration of Press and xenical online no rx overnight Publication boasted of taking down 136,000 non-registered Web sites and more than xenical online no rx overnight 1.5 million pieces of “bad information.” It also said it had shut down 15,000 pornographic Web sites.

For now, the xenical online no rx overnight government has said only that it will seek more information from xenical online no rx overnight Google. Virtually the only official comment came in the form of a xenical online no rx overnight signed opinion article on the People’s Daily Web site, lacking the xenical online no rx overnight weight of an officially vetted unsigned editorial. The article likened Google to xenical online no rx overnight a “spoiled child” and xenical online no rx overnight said that even if it stormed out of China, it xenical online no rx overnight would be back because of the importance of the Chinese market.

Other pro-government online comments said that xenical online no rx overnight Google, which lags far behind the Chinese-based search engine Baidu, was simply dressing up a xenical online no rx overnight business decision in moral clothing. Baidu has about two-thirds of the xenical online no rx overnight market. Some independent analysts have estimated a 30 percent market share for xenical online no rx overnight Google, but well-placed industry sources put the number closer to xenical online no rx overnight 20 percent.

Dan Brody, who set up Google’s China office and xenical online no rx overnight now runs the Koolanoo Group, a Beijing-based Internet media investment firm, estimates that xenical online no rx overnight Google has annual revenue of $300 million to $400 million in China — an xenical online no rx overnight amount that he said pales next to the revenue it xenical online no rx overnight earns elsewhere.

Moreover, he said, if Google loses even a xenical online no rx overnight small percentage of its users in Europe or the United States because it xenical online no rx overnight is seen as compromising too much with China, it could lose more than xenical online no rx overnight it earns in the country. “From a xenical online no rx overnight business and moral perspective, user trust in the West is so important to xenical online no rx overnight them,” he said.

The company has xenical online no rx overnight clashed with the Chinese government since it set up google.cn in 2005. Google agreed to xenical online no rx overnight remove information that China’s leadership might find too sensitive but differed with officials over what xenical online no rx overnight should fall into that category.

Last summer, state-run media denounced the xenical online no rx overnight firm for providing access to “pornography.” Another industry source close to xenical online no rx overnight Google said that in addition to well-publicized incidents, Chinese officials were demanding weekly that xenical online no rx overnight items be removed. When cyberattacks were discovered, he said, “it was the last straw.” The industry sources spoke on the condition of anonymity.

If Google closes down its Chinese site, or xenical online no rx overnight if the Chinese government closes it down, Chinese users could still try to xenical online no rx overnight use the U.S.-based site. But the U.S. site works more slowly, and xenical online no rx overnight access to many pages is blocked.

Where would that leave the Chinese market?

The closing of Google’s China site would boost Baidu and xenical online no rx overnight Sina and hurt Google, industry analysts said.

Despite expensive campaigns in universities and xenical online no rx overnight schools, Google has had trouble catching up to its domestic competitors. Analysts say Chinese Internet users prefer the xenical online no rx overnight crowded, busy sites of Baidu and Sina to the no-nonsense sparseness of Google’s home page. Unlike Google, Baidu and xenical online no rx overnight Sina also feature bulletin boards and music-downloading services. And surveys have xenical online no rx overnight shown that most Chinese people have trouble spelling Google or xenical online no rx overnight don’t know its Chinese name, Guge, which means “valley song.”

Google China has xenical online no rx overnight also suffered from high turnover and was recently forced to replace some of its locally hired, Mandarin-speaking staff with managers from xenical online no rx overnight its California headquarters. The head of Google China, Kai-Fu Lee, who xenical online no rx overnight was recruited from Microsoft, quit in September.

Ironically, however, the xenical online no rx overnight possible departure of Google is no guarantee of harmony on the xenical online no rx overnight Chinese Internet. This week, Baidu’s site was attacked by hackers who said they were from Iran.

“This is a lose-lose solution for both Google and China,” said Hu Yong of Beijing University’s School of Journalism and Communication.

“For Google, China is a huge market with very big business potential,” Hu said. “For Chinese netizens, it’s a xenical online no rx overnight bad result as well. A search engine is very important for xenical online no rx overnight the free transportation of information online. And we need competition,” he added, or “the number of information sources will decrease.”

Staff researchers Zhang Jie and Wang Juan contributed to this report.