BAY AREA
Google's China policy protested
Censored site draws fire at UC, Stanford recruiting events
- Ellen Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, February 5, 2006
Chanting "Shame on Google" and "Google, don't be evil," students protested the Mountain View Internet company's recent decision to launch a censored Web site in China and hounded Google China President Kai-Fu Lee as he spoke Saturday at UC Berkeley and Stanford University.
Lee, speaking in Chinese before overflowing crowds of college students at each event, spent most of his time discussing his philosophy of leadership and his career as a high-tech executive, as well as recruiting potential job applicants for Google's rapidly expanding China operations.
But he couldn't avoid pressing questions about Google.cn, its new filtered Web site in China. Responding to a UC Berkeley student's question, Lee acknowledged that Google made a difficult decision to launch the site but did so to offer better service to the people there.
Lee said that Google had to obey China's laws to do business there. That includes blocking out search results related to such issues as "Tibet independence," which the Chinese government has deemed controversial and inappropriate.
Google's Chinese users previously could only access its services about 15 percent of the time, but now they can find much more information with Google.cn, he said.
Though competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft have made the same move, Google's decision two weeks ago has drawn extensive criticism because of its company motto "Don't be evil."
One group critical of Google, Students for a Free Tibet, showed up Saturday, holding signs such as "Kaifu Leevil" and marching outside as Lee gave his talk at Stanford.
Lee left almost immediately after his talk, dodging protesters on his way to his car.
"We hope to get the message to Kai-Fu Lee that we won't stand for censorship," said Alma David, a University of San Francisco law school student and a member of Students for a Free Tibet. "We see a company selling out its values for a profit. Its 'don't be evil' just seems like a bad joke."
But many of the hundreds of students attending his talk were excited to hear about Google and its new offices in China, which opened about half a year ago and employs a few dozen employees.
"I think there are many young people there," said Hong Wang, a Stanford graduate student from China. "They have a great company culture."
Lee's hiring was controversial. He moved to Google last year after spending seven years with Microsoft Corp. His appointment spurred a lawsuit by Microsoft, which feared that Lee would share confidential information with his new employer.
Google and Microsoft settled the suit in December.
Lee, who has written a book, "Be Your Personal Best," said Saturday he decided to join Google because it offered him the opportunity to build its operations in China from the ground up. He also said he realized that he had hit his peak at Microsoft, had stopped learning and growing.
Journalists in China questioned his decision to jump from one of the world's largest, most successful software companies to a smaller Internet company -- Chinese media don't view Google the same way journalists here do, he joked.
Lee didn't go into much detail about Google's China operations, saying it was too soon, but promised an update the next time he appeared.
At the end of his talk, he played a short clip about Google's China operations, which highlighted the company's culture. One of the employees said that on his first day of work, he was told he had to sing a song. Since he couldn't carry a tune, he showed off another talent -- drinking a can of beer in five seconds.
这个事儿是smallthing那个jr先告诉我的，燕山大学的一个玩WOW的家伙是某工会会长，上了某会员的老婆。然后被老公发现了，并声讨。在WOWAR、外屋、天涯等处激起了众网友的强烈欲望。占戈的一塌糊涂。因为该会长与出墙女的ＱＱ聊天纪录中讨论过包皮相关，所以网友称其为包皮男。该工会以相当强硬的态度对待铺天盖地的骂声，加上流出的内部聊天记录和TS录音，更激怒的无聊的网友们，于是大家占戈啊占戈啊，甚至占戈到燕山大学的校长头上，去什么校长投票的网站说人家是包皮校长。真实可怜啊。
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