香港:歌中國的避風港?
【英文原文】
Google's Hong Kong Back Door
Overnight in China, Google started redirecting users of its mainland Chinese search engine to the uncensored, Hong Kong-based , presenting a challenge to China's control of the Internet.
Google's latest move to offer unfiltered results to Chinese users represents the most prominent challenge to Chinese authorities in recent memory, particularly for a company that says it still wants to do business in China. The redirection of users to the Hong Kong site could be seen as compounding the offense since it is clearly based on the wider freedoms available in Hong Kong under the 'one country, two systems' policy.
The former British colony of Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, maintains a separate legal system and has a free press. Google's Hong Kong office is registered as a separate legal entity from its mainland China offices.
offers many of the same services as , as well as a simplified Chinese-language option (Hong Kong uses traditional Chinese characters). On the simplified Chinese home page of , users are greeted with a message that reads: 'Welcome to the new home of Google Search in China.' Users can also access Google's free Chinese music download service through the Hong Kong site.
The Hong Kong government said Tuesday it doesn't censor the content of Web sites and fully respects freedom of information. 'There are no restrictions on access to Web sites, including Hong Kong-based Web sites, from China,' the government said in an e-mailed statement.
The question now is how long China will allow Google to continue to exploit the loophole offered by 'one country, two systems.' Mainland authorities could easily revoke Google's right to use the domain name (as well as the related domain) and/or block access to the Hong Kong site, but beyond that, Google's activities in Hong Kong are largely beyond their reach. This has made the city a haven for media outlets that take a critical stance toward the Chinese government, such as Jimmy Lai's Next Media (publisher of Apple Daily) and the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia, as well as human rights groups and NGOs that focus on issues in China.
China's response so far doesn't offer much comfort. This morning, Xinhua news agency cited an official from the Internet bureau of the State Council Information Office slamming the U.S. Internet giant's actions.
'Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks,' the unnamed official was quoted as saying. 'This is totally wrong. We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts.'
【中文譯文】
香港：谷歌中國的避風港？
就在一夜之間，谷歌(Google)將訪問這一受審查搜索引擎的中國大陸網民導向了設在香港、未經審查的，此舉給中國控制互聯網的努力帶來了挑戰。
在人們印象中，谷歌執意爲中國網民提供未經過濾搜索結果的決定是近來中國政府面臨的最嚴峻挑戰，特別值得一提的是，此時谷歌還表示自己希望繼續在中國做生意。谷歌將服務轉向香港的做法可能被視作進一步冒犯，因爲它這麼做顯然是考慮到香港在“一國兩制”的政策下擁有更大的言論自由。
曾爲英國殖民地的香港在1997年迴歸大陸，它與中國司法制度不同，並支持媒體的自由表達。谷歌在香港的辦公室被註冊爲與公司大陸業務不同的法律實體。
提供了許多與一樣的服務，其中包括簡體選項。香港使用繁體字。在的簡體字頁面上寫着這樣一行字：歡迎您來到谷歌搜索在中國的新家。用戶還可以通過谷歌的香港網站接入中國的免費音樂下載服務。
香港政府週二表示不會審查網站內容，而且完全尊重資訊自由。香港政府在通過電子郵件發出的聲明中表示，香港對登錄網站沒有限制，包括從中國大陸登錄設在香港的網站。
現在的問題是中國政府對谷歌鑽“一國兩制”空子的做法還能容忍多久。中國大陸政府可以輕而易舉地撤銷以及的域名，或者阻止用戶登陸其香港網站，但除此之外，谷歌在香港的業務大多是中國政府所無法干涉的。香港儼然成了對中國政府持批評態度的媒體的避風港，比如黎智英(Jimmy Lai)開辦的壹傳媒(Next Media , 該公司爲《蘋果日報》發行商)、美國政府資助的自由亞洲電臺(Radio Free Asia)等媒體，以及若干關注中國問題的人權團體和非政府組織。
迄今爲止中國方面的迴應還顯得比較強硬。週二早間，國有媒體新華社(Xinhua News Agency)引用國務院新聞辦公室網絡局一位未具名官員的話對谷歌這一決定大加抨擊。
報導稱，這位官員指出，谷歌公司違背進入中國市場時作出的書面承諾，停止對搜索服務進行過濾，並就黑客攻擊影射和指責中國，這是完全錯誤的。我們堅決反對將商業問題政治化，對谷歌公司的無理指責和做法表示不滿和憤慨。
