香港:歌中国的避风港?

【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.'

【中文译文】

香港：谷歌中国的避风港？
就在一夜之间，谷歌(Google)将访问这一受审查搜索引擎的中国大陆网民导向了设在香港、未经审查的，此举给中国控制互联网的努力带来了挑战。

在人们印象中，谷歌执意为中国网民提供未经过滤搜索结果的决定是近来中国政府面临的最严峻挑战，特别值得一提的是，此时谷歌还表示自己希望继续在中国做生意。谷歌将服务转向香港的做法可能被视作进一步冒犯，因为它这么做显然是考虑到香港在“一国两制”的政策下拥有更大的言论自由。

曾为英国殖民地的香港在1997年回归大陆，它与中国司法制度不同，并支持媒体的自由表达。谷歌在香港的办公室被注册为与公司大陆业务不同的法律实体。

提供了许多与一样的服务，其中包括简体选项。香港使用繁体字。在的简体字页面上写着这样一行字：欢迎您来到谷歌搜索在中国的新家。用户还可以通过谷歌的香港网站接入中国的免费音乐下载服务。

香港政府周二表示不会审查网站内容，而且完全尊重资讯自由。香港政府在通过电子邮件发出的声明中表示，香港对登录网站没有限制，包括从中国大陆登录设在香港的网站。

现在的问题是中国政府对谷歌钻“一国两制”空子的做法还能容忍多久。中国大陆政府可以轻而易举地撤销以及的域名，或者阻止用户登陆其香港网站，但除此之外，谷歌在香港的业务大多是中国政府所无法干涉的。香港俨然成了对中国政府持批评态度的媒体的避风港，比如黎智英(Jimmy Lai)开办的壹传媒(Next Media , 该公司为《苹果日报》发行商)、美国政府资助的自由亚洲电台(Radio Free Asia)等媒体，以及若干关注中国问题的人权团体和非政府组织。

迄今为止中国方面的回应还显得比较强硬。周二早间，国有媒体新华社(Xinhua News Agency)引用国务院新闻办公室网络局一位未具名官员的话对谷歌这一决定大加抨击。

报导称，这位官员指出，谷歌公司违背进入中国市场时作出的书面承诺，停止对搜索服务进行过滤，并就黑客攻击影射和指责中国，这是完全错误的。我们坚决反对将商业问题政治化，对谷歌公司的无理指责和做法表示不满和愤慨。