Google Announces Exit from Mainland China to Hong Kong; Agency Business Unaffected for Now

At 3 a.m. on the 23rd, Google's U.S. headquarters announced it would move its search service from mainland China to Hong Kong.

A senior official from the Internet Affairs Bureau of the State Council Information Office of China issued a statement in the early hours of the 23rd regarding Google's announcement to cease filtering harmful information as required by Chinese law and to move its search service from mainland China to Hong Kong, expressing dissatisfaction and indignation over Google's unreasonable accusations and actions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang also stated at a regular press conference that day, "The Google incident is nothing more than an individual act by a commercial company and will not affect Sino-U.S. relations, unless someone tries to politicize it; nor will it affect China's international image, unless someone tries to make an issue of it. It is not China but Google itself that is damaging its image."

Google has threatened to withdraw from China, and how to resolve the agency issue has become one of the focal points. A week ago, a representative of Google's 27 agencies in China sent an email to Liu Yun, Google's global vice president, demanding a settlement plan for Google's withdrawal from China. The email mainly raised three points: how to refund the funds that advertising clients have deposited into Google accounts, how to compensate agencies for their losses, and how to compensate the tens of thousands of "Google agency employees."

A reporter from the Herald called Liu Yun, Google's global vice president, at 10 a.m. on the 23rd, but the call went unanswered.

Source: New Culture News