Google in China

Failure 1: Networking

This hasn’t been confirmed by any reliable sources, but I would like to emphasize this to all of you guys. Few years ago, I remember when Google started to launch Google.cn, their servers are located in Beijing, capital of China. However, to my dismay, I found out that Google.cn is even much slower than Google.com, whose servers are based in the US. Of course, this shouldn’t be happening as Beijing is much nearer to my network than the US.

Before the recent large-scale reallocation of telecommunication resources in China, there were two major telecommunication operators that  have Data Centers – China Netcom and China Telecom. Due to the usage of substandard technologies and high cost of telecom devices such as root routers and fiber cables, there was not enough bandwidth between China Netcom and China Telecom. It’s even less than International bandwidth which was mainly supported by the US in terms of technology and funding.

Google.cn was hosted in China Netcom Data Center, and as I was a user of China Telecom. That’s why searching for something on Google.cn would take me “years”. In contrast, Baidu knew the actual statement of the relationship of telecommunication operators in China, and then made use of Content Delivery Network, which enabled users to access Baidu.com in an instance. Therefore, I would rather choose Baidu because it can return faster search results.

Failure 2: ICP Certificate

Do you know why China block so many International websites? The government always uses ICP Certificate to explain. ICP Certificate was first launched in 2003, with an aim to control various sensitive Internet content (especially pornography and protection of copyright). ICP later became compulsory for all websites operating in China. Before 2005, Google did not have a valid ICP Certificate. According to the authorities, Google was operating “illegally” in China.

That is one of the main reasons why Google.com has been blocked for a...