Google has abolished censorship in the Chinese version of its search engine. Now all search requests on Google.cn are forwarded to its Hong Kong site, but China can independently filter search queries coming from the mainland.
From Monday, visitors to Google.cn are automatically redirected to the Hong Kong site Google.com.hk, The Associated Press said. The main page of the site says: “Welcome to the new home of Google search in China!” Despite the transfer of the Chinese search engine to Hong Kong, Google plans to keep its sales offices and technical support in China to continue to sell advertising for the Chinese version of the site.
Back in early January, Google said that it intended to cease filtering search results on Google.cn, accusing China of aiding and abetting hacker attacks. The Chinese authorities had still managed to ensure that all search results for users in mainland China are censored. For queries about the events on Tiananmen Square in 1989, sent from Beijing and Shanghai via the Hong Kong search engine, you receive an error message, Bloomberg said.
Qin Gang, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters that Google’s actions are the lone decision of a commercial company and should not harm bilateral relations between China and the United States.