Friday, March 19, 2010

Google May Leave China on April 10

Google’s decision to cease its operation in China is edging closer to reality after months of negotiations. China Business News reports that Google plans to leave China on April 10.
The report cites an unidentified Google China employee, but this information has not been confirmed by Google. Allegedly, Google gave its China employees the option of moving to the company’s U.S. headquarters or working for its Asia-Pacific operations.
If this is true, it once again raises the question of what, exactly, is Google pulling out from China: its entire operations or just the search engine, which it has declined to censor? The latter now seems more likely.
In any case, if Google does pull out, it may be a long, long time before it returns. Peter Lui, who was formerly Google’s financial controller for the Asia Pacific region, said that Google’s public announcement to leave had “burnt bridges… There is no way Google can ever come back.”
Via:Mashable