After Google's Move, a Shift in Search Terms

While "google" may be a common verb in the U.S., in China, it’s not a necessary part of the 21st Century lingo. Even though Google moved its East Asian headquarters to Hong Kong recently, effectively pulling the search engine out of Chinese control, many Chinese citizens don’t feel that they will miss it. As reported by Jonathan Stray and Lily Lee in the New York Times today, there are other options that are equally, if not more, popular. “I heard that Google is leaving China. But I don’t care. Why should I? I’m fine with Baidu,” said Xiong Huan, a 27- year-old engineer. Luo Peng, a Beijing salesman said that “Just like YouTube and Facebook, my life is fine without them. I can always use other similar services that are available.” However, the real political story is in the brief, but potent rise in search figures for politically sensitive terms the day that Google announced its shift. Tuesday, March 23rd was when Google began to offer uncensored Chinese-language search results. Interestingly, searches for “Tiannmen,” “Falun Gong,” and “corruption” increased by more than ten times on the same day. Yet the searches on the Hong Kong-based engine dropped soon, in part because even if search results do come up on controversial subjects, the sites themselves are still blocked.


The implications of this are important in citizen-state relations, foreign investments, and freedom of press. It is interesting that the citizens seem not to care as much; perhaps because they do have Baidu, which is always running unlike Google, albeit always censored. However, a clear thirst for censored information is evident through the searches. While Google is the dominant search engine in the Western world, China’s hacking and censorship is not attractive to foreign investors, particularly those that deal with sensitive information. Finally, freedom of press which is held paramount in Western-style democracy, is a definite hindering factor in China’s modernization.