FROM a technical perspective, Google’s exit from China in the early hours of 22 March was a low-key affair. Google simply disconnected its self-censored search engine in Beijing, and rerouted its traffic to an uncensored search engine in Hong Kong. Google says attacks on the email accounts of dissidents, which it believes came from the Chinese authorities, made it impossible for it to continue operating there.
By moving its service to Hong Kong, where the censorship laws that apply to the rest of China are not enforced, Google has been able to continue providing a service without having to censor…
