Google's China problem: U.S. technology companies come under fire for helping China police the internet.

• Author: French, Howard W.
• Position: Police investigates with email address from the technology companies

China's Internet censors are hard at work these days, shutting down blogs the government doesn't like and filtering Web sites and e-mail messages for banned words and phrases like "democracy" and "free Tibet." It's all part of an effort by China's government to tighten control over what it calls "propaganda."

Across the Pacific, American technology companies are being criticized for helping the Chinese government police the Web: Yahoo provided information about its users' e-mail accounts that helped the authorities convict dissidents, according to Chinese lawyers. In December, Microsoft closed a popular blog by an outspoken Chinese journalist known for his comments about restrictions on the press. Cisco Systems has supplied equipment that helps Beijing control Web access, and Google ensures that search results on its new Chinese platform, Google.cn, do not include material that the government does not want its people to see.

These companies argue that even with restrictions, their presence in China offers its citizens access to more information than they would otherwise have. "While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission," a senior executive at Google says, "providing no information, or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information, is more inconsistent with our mission."

TIANANMEN SQUARE

In some instances, the manipulations are fairly subtle. Students searching for "Republic of China" on Google.cn would find information about the period from 1912 to 1949, when the mainland was called Republic of China and the Communists under Mao Zedong had not yet seized power.

The same search done in the U.S. on Google.com provides links to sites in Taiwan, which still formally goes by the name Republic of China. (In 1949, following the Communists' victory, 2 million Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.)

In other cases, the omissions are glaring. Searches for "Tiananmen Square" on Google.com produce pictures of a man blocking a column of tanks--the iconic image of the 1989 student protests calling for democracy, and the violent crackdown in which the Chinese army gunned down several hundred civilians. Google.cn features soldiers raising the national flag and tourists taking snapshots.

'GREAT FIREWALL'

Although Google.com is still available in China, it produces links that cannot be opened inside what has become known as the "Great Firewall."

Google says...