[ NNSquad ] China renews Google's operating license (but can block at will)

[Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>]

China renews Google's operating license (but can block at will)

http://bit.ly/bxCAr9  (WSJ)

Of course, this is essentially "cost free" to the Chinese government,
since:

a) China can revoke the license at any time

and (probably much more important to the Chinese censorship regime):

b) China can block ordinary (non-proxied, non-VPN) access to
   (uncensored) google.com.hk (either in whole or in part) to whatever
   degree that the government desires.  In fact, anecdotal reports
   I've received in the last few hours suggest that such blocking
   continues in force, at least in terms of selective content.
   It is important to emphasize that this is access blocking by the
   Chinese government, not censorship conducted by Google, and that
   Google's policy of no longer participating in the Chinese censorship
   regime continues in force.

If recent history is any predictor, we can expect further (seemingly
arbitrary) Chinese government clampdowns on access to Google content
at any time.

--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator