China Censors Access to Google

In what appears to be a reaction to the perceived threat of information available over the Internet, and feared loss of control of information by the Communist party in China, the U.S.-based Google search engine has been blocked by the powers that be in Beijing. Apparently fearing that Google might deliver content that the Party deems dangerous and objectionable, as well as delivering political content that is associated with the Falun Gong movement, which is severely prohibited in China, Google's search engines became unavailable in China beginning September 1st. China has an important upcoming Communist Party congress in November, and China's media censors are eager to be politically correct by following the Party line. Google is one of the few search engines that can run complete and thorough Chinese language Internet searches. The Chinese government also routinely blocks access to some foreign news Web sites and heavily censors Chinese domestic news content. There was no official confirmation or denial of the unavailability of Google by Chinese government officials. Ironically, the Yahoo site, which is powered by Google's technology, is still up and running in China.