Reuters
谷歌联合创始人布林在2月份的一个讨论会上
谷
歌公司(Google Inc.)本周戏剧性地宣布关闭其位于中国的搜索引擎，这一举动背后是其联合创始人布林(Sergey Brin)对在华经商必须做的妥协改变了看法，这个国度越来越让他想起自己的出生地苏联。
《华尔街日报》记者杰西卡・维斯舍拉罗(Jessica Vascellaro)就谷歌关闭中国搜索网站的举动采访了谷歌联合创始人赛吉・布林(Sergey Brin)。在以下视频中，布林讲述了谷歌近来做出一系列戏剧性决策的原因。
他说，中国无所不在。我参加的会议中有五分之一包含了一些适用于中国、不同于其他国家的成分。
36岁的布林说，越来越多的迹象显示中国在实施他记忆中苏联实施的镇压行为，也是让他改变主意的原因。布林在6岁时随父母逃离了苏联。他说，对那个年代的记忆──警察登门，父亲遭反犹主义歧视──让他更加认为，抛弃谷歌既定政策的时候到了。
相关报导
1月12日，谷歌表示它将停止对其中国搜索引擎的自我审查，原因是遭受了网络攻击，并相信攻击是为了窃取中国维权人士的电子邮件。本周一，谷歌实施了这一政策，将其搜索引擎的大陆用户转到无需审查的香港站点。
布林说，网络攻击是压断骆驼脊背的稻草。知情人士说，随后谷歌公司内部就是否停止审查展开了激烈辩论。了解辩论情况的人士说，首席执行长施密特(Eric Schmidt)等人觉得谷歌应当在中国坚持到底，继续从内部推行它的原则，但布林和其他高管占了上风。
布林说，我们对此确实有过漫长的辩论，几次漫长的辩论。我们听取了所有的论点。当记者问及可否联系施密特和谷歌另一位创始人佩奇(Larry Page)发表评论时，谷歌发言人说布林讲的话代表了整个公司。
谷歌接下来在中国会怎样，目前还不清楚。它的业务已陷入危险境地。包括香港传媒公司TOM集团有限公司(TOM Group Ltd)在内的一些合作伙伴停止了与谷歌之间的搜索协议，理由是它们要遵守中国法律。据招聘人员称，员工在盘算投奔微软(Microsoft Corp.)等竞争对手。
中国政府称谷歌此举是"完全错误的"。互联网专家怀疑，中国是否会让谷歌继续把用户对谷歌中文网站的访问转到香港。尽管谷歌没有审查香港网站，中国例行的互联网过滤工具却在对中国用户屏蔽一些搜索结果。
布林对谷歌早期同意在华审查搜索结果的疑虑可以追溯到他在苏联的童年时代。1979年，他和家人离开苏联，以躲避反犹太主义思潮。当时布林只有六岁，不过他说他记得在父母决定移民海外之后，警察到他家里讯问他的父母，这类记忆让他不时回想起对监视持续不断的恐惧。
布林说，直到今天，他和家人还常常反思移民海外的重要意义。他说，他的父亲曾想成为一名天体物理学家，不过由于种族歧视，最后成了一名数学家。他说，他享受着追逐自己创业梦想的自由。他的父亲成了马里兰大学的一名数学教授。
中国是一项重大考验。谷歌迫切希望参与其中，希望可以增加人们对信息的获取，它感知到新的商业机会。2005年，谷歌在中国设立了研发中心，高管们开始讨论是否应该在中国开设一个搜索引擎──此举可能要求他们事先过滤掉他们觉得中国政府认为反动的内容。
布林、佩奇和施密特一致认为，推出一个搜索引擎──并在网站上声明部分信息被去掉了──能让中国互联网用户知道信息受到了限制。
布林说，2008年底，就在北京奥运会结束后，审查变得更严格了。据知情人士透露，中国有关部门还开始告知谷歌，它需要若干额外的许可证才可以运营业务。
去年，中国政府指责谷歌网站上有太多色情内容，迫使谷歌在一段时间里暂停了部分功能，谷歌进一步受阻。多年来中国时不时屏蔽的谷歌YouTube视频服务在中国无法再访问。
布林说，2009年底谷歌发现自己遭受了一场非常复杂的网络攻击时，谷歌仍在评估各项选择。布林说，在谷歌找到证据证明攻击的目的是为了侵入中国维权人士的电子邮件时，他终于受够了。这成了压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草。
布林说，最后我想这就是你承受的底线了。所以，作为一家公司，我们显然超过了这个底线。
至于中国，布林说谷歌正在评估业务，包括仍在中国运营的业务，比如地图和音乐搜索服务。他说，我们步入了一个新的世界，我们会考察所有的服务。
他对更为激进的最终结果仍抱有希望。他说，我当然希望长期解决之道是中国大陆互联网的自由。
Jessica E. Vascellaro
（更新完成）
Behind Google Inc.'s (GOOG) dramatic decision to shutter its China-based search engine this week was co-founder Sergey Brin's change of heart about the compromises required to do business in a land that was increasingly reminding him of his native Soviet Union.
The beginning of that change came just after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Brin said in an interview. As the glow of the Olympics faded, he said, the Chinese government began ratcheting up its Web censoring and interfering more with Google's business. Around that time, he said, the murky rules of doing business in China grew even murkier.
'China was ever-present,' he said. 'One out of five meetings I attended had some component that applied to China in a different way than other countries.'
The 36-year-old co-founder said he was also moved by growing evidence in China of repressive behavior he remembered from the Soviet Union, which he and his parents fled when he was 6 years old. He said memories of that time--having his home visited by Russian police, the anti-Semitic discrimination against his father--emboldened his view that it was time to abandon Google's policy.
China has 'made great strides against poverty and what not,' Brin said. 'But nevertheless, in some aspects of their policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents, I see the same earmarks of totalitarianism, and I find that personally quite troubling.'
On Jan. 12, Google said it would stop self-censoring its search engine in China, citing cyber-attacks it believes were motivated by an attempt to spy on Chinese activists' emails. On Monday, Google implemented that policy, routing mainland users of its search engine to a site in Hong Kong that the company wasn't censoring.
The cyber attacks were the 'straw that broke the camel's back,' Brin said. A heated debate in the company about whether to cease censoring ensued, say people familiar with the matter. Brin and other executives prevailed over Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and others who felt that Google ought to stay the course in China to continue to push its principles from the inside, say people familiar with the discussions.
'We did have a long conversation about it, several long conversations,' Brin said. 'We heard all the arguments.' When asked if Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page were available for comment, a Google spokeswoman said Brin was speaking on behalf of the company.
What's next for Google in China is uncertain. Its business is in jeopardy. Some partners, such as Hong Kong media company TOM Group Ltd (2383.HK), dropped their search agreements with Google, citing the need to abide by Chinese law. Employees are contemplating defecting to such rivals as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), according to recruiters.
Beijing has called the move 'totally wrong.' Internet experts are skeptical that China will let Google continue to route traffic from its China site to Hong Kong. While Google isn't censoring that site, China's routine Internet filters are blocking some results for users in China.
Brin's doubts over Google's early agreement to censor in China hark back to his childhood in the Soviet Union, which he and his family left in 1979 to escape anti-Semitism. Brin was 6, but he said he is reminded of the constant fear of surveillance through memories such as police visiting his family's apartment to question his parents after they made the decision to emigrate.
To this day, Brin said, he and his family often reflect on the significance of the move. His father, he said, wanted to be an astrophysicist, but because of ethnic discrimination became a mathematician. He relished the freedom to pursue 'his own entrepreneurial dreams,' he says. His father became a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland.
China was a big test. Google was eager to be a player, hopeful that it could increase access to information and sensing new business opportunities. Google set up a Chinese research-and-development center in 2005, and executives began to debate whether they should open up a search engine on Chinese soil-a move that would require them to filter out content ahead of time that they thought the Chinese government would deem objectionable.
Brin, Page and Schmidt agreed that launching a search engine-and putting a disclosure on the site saying that some information had been removed-would generate awareness among Chinese Internet users that information was being restricted.
In late 2008, just after the Beijing Summer Olympic games, the censoring took a turn for the worse, Brin said. Chinese authorities also began to tell Google it needed a number of additional licenses to operate its business, according to people familiar with the requests.
Last year, Google was further hamstrung when Beijing accused it of having too much pornography on its site and forced Google to disable some features for a period. Google's YouTube video service, which China had blocked periodically over the years, became inaccessible in the country.
Brin said Google was still evaluating its options when it discovered it was struck by a highly sophisticated cyber attack in late 2009. After Google discovered evidence that the motivation of the attacks was to peek at the emails of Chinese activists, Brin said, he had had enough. It was the last straw.
'Ultimately I guess it is where your threshold of discomfort is,' Brin said. 'So we obviously as a company crossed that threshold of discomfort.'
As for China, Brin said Google is reviewing its businesses, including the ones it still hosts in China like maps and its music search service. 'We have stepped into a new world and will be looking at all the services,' he says.
And he is still holding out hope for more radical end-game. 'I certainly hope that the long-term solution is the liberalization of the Internet in mainland China,' he said.
Jessica E. Vascellaro
The beginning of that change came just after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Brin said in an interview. As the glow of the Olympics faded, he said, the Chinese government began ratcheting up its Web censoring and interfering more with Google's business. Around that time, he said, the murky rules of doing business in China grew even murkier.
'China was ever-present,' he said. 'One out of five meetings I attended had some component that applied to China in a different way than other countries.'
The 36-year-old co-founder said he was also moved by growing evidence in China of repressive behavior he remembered from the Soviet Union, which he and his parents fled when he was 6 years old. He said memories of that time--having his home visited by Russian police, the anti-Semitic discrimination against his father--emboldened his view that it was time to abandon Google's policy.
China has 'made great strides against poverty and what not,' Brin said. 'But nevertheless, in some aspects of their policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents, I see the same earmarks of totalitarianism, and I find that personally quite troubling.'
On Jan. 12, Google said it would stop self-censoring its search engine in China, citing cyber-attacks it believes were motivated by an attempt to spy on Chinese activists' emails. On Monday, Google implemented that policy, routing mainland users of its search engine to a site in Hong Kong that the company wasn't censoring.
The cyber attacks were the 'straw that broke the camel's back,' Brin said. A heated debate in the company about whether to cease censoring ensued, say people familiar with the matter. Brin and other executives prevailed over Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and others who felt that Google ought to stay the course in China to continue to push its principles from the inside, say people familiar with the discussions.
'We did have a long conversation about it, several long conversations,' Brin said. 'We heard all the arguments.' When asked if Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page were available for comment, a Google spokeswoman said Brin was speaking on behalf of the company.
What's next for Google in China is uncertain. Its business is in jeopardy. Some partners, such as Hong Kong media company TOM Group Ltd (2383.HK), dropped their search agreements with Google, citing the need to abide by Chinese law. Employees are contemplating defecting to such rivals as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), according to recruiters.
Beijing has called the move 'totally wrong.' Internet experts are skeptical that China will let Google continue to route traffic from its China site to Hong Kong. While Google isn't censoring that site, China's routine Internet filters are blocking some results for users in China.
Brin's doubts over Google's early agreement to censor in China hark back to his childhood in the Soviet Union, which he and his family left in 1979 to escape anti-Semitism. Brin was 6, but he said he is reminded of the constant fear of surveillance through memories such as police visiting his family's apartment to question his parents after they made the decision to emigrate.
To this day, Brin said, he and his family often reflect on the significance of the move. His father, he said, wanted to be an astrophysicist, but because of ethnic discrimination became a mathematician. He relished the freedom to pursue 'his own entrepreneurial dreams,' he says. His father became a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland.
China was a big test. Google was eager to be a player, hopeful that it could increase access to information and sensing new business opportunities. Google set up a Chinese research-and-development center in 2005, and executives began to debate whether they should open up a search engine on Chinese soil-a move that would require them to filter out content ahead of time that they thought the Chinese government would deem objectionable.
Brin, Page and Schmidt agreed that launching a search engine-and putting a disclosure on the site saying that some information had been removed-would generate awareness among Chinese Internet users that information was being restricted.
In late 2008, just after the Beijing Summer Olympic games, the censoring took a turn for the worse, Brin said. Chinese authorities also began to tell Google it needed a number of additional licenses to operate its business, according to people familiar with the requests.
Last year, Google was further hamstrung when Beijing accused it of having too much pornography on its site and forced Google to disable some features for a period. Google's YouTube video service, which China had blocked periodically over the years, became inaccessible in the country.
Brin said Google was still evaluating its options when it discovered it was struck by a highly sophisticated cyber attack in late 2009. After Google discovered evidence that the motivation of the attacks was to peek at the emails of Chinese activists, Brin said, he had had enough. It was the last straw.
'Ultimately I guess it is where your threshold of discomfort is,' Brin said. 'So we obviously as a company crossed that threshold of discomfort.'
As for China, Brin said Google is reviewing its businesses, including the ones it still hosts in China like maps and its music search service. 'We have stepped into a new world and will be looking at all the services,' he says.
And he is still holding out hope for more radical end-game. 'I certainly hope that the long-term solution is the liberalization of the Internet in mainland China,' he said.
Jessica E. Vascellaro
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