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Google & China

Check out the statement issued by David Drummond of Google Inc. and the 10 minute interview on CNBC with David Drummond by Larry Kudrow regarding the issue.

It’ll be interesting to see exactly how the issue will play out over as Google meets with the Chinese government to see if they really can set up an uncensored search engine — and, in the case they cannot, exactly how they’ll modify their operations in China. Shutting down their offices in Beijing seems drastic, especially because they have an awfully large Google sign on their building overlooking 成府路 (the office is about halfway between Wudaokou and Beijing University so we’ve passed it a lot), but at the end of the interview, while Drummond expressed a strong interest in staying in China, he stated, “[The business in China] is quite small…[it] was never really a financial move for us. We thought we needed to serve the market, our revenues from the China business are truly immaterial,” and the bottom line is that they want an uncensored search engine with the Beijing government’s approval. Which’ll probably be harder than, say, buying 烤地瓜 (roasted sweet potatoes) from street vendors in Beijing. Speaking of which:

亲爱的卖烤地瓜的小贩,
请你们来纽约。
谢谢,

It is cold in New York and it’ll also be cold in New Orleans, where I’ll be for a week starting tomorrow (!!!) to go on an orchestra tour. 1 kuai roasted sweet potatoes never sounded so good.

Postscript: Just heard from a friend of mine across the Pacific— Google, or least GMail, is now blocked in China. Also, here are some reactions of Chinese netizens regarding the situation.

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