As part of a broad campaign to tighten internal security, the Chinese government has draped a darker shroud over internet communications in recent weeks, a situation that has made it more difficult for Google and its customers to do business.
Chinese exporters have struggled to place Google ads that appeal to overseas buyers. Biotechnology researchers in Beijing had trouble recalibrating a costly microscope this summer because they could not locate the online instructions to do so. And international companies have had difficulty exchanging Gmail messages among far-flung offices and setting up meetings on applications like Google Calendar.
"It's a frustrating and annoying drain on productivity," said Jeffrey Phillips, an American energy executive who has lived in China for 14 years. "You've got people spending their time figuring out how to send a file instead of getting their work done."
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The pain is widespread. Two popular messaging services owned by South Korean companies, Line and Kakao Talk, were abruptly blocked this summer, as were other applications like Didi, Talk Box and Vower. American giants like Twitter and Facebook have long been censored by China's Great Firewall, a system of filters the government has spent lavishly on to control internet traffic in and out of the country.
A communal work space in Google's Singapore offices. Increasing online censorship in recent weeks has hampered several of the company's services within China. Credit: Charles Pertwee for The New York Times
Even as Google and other big technology companies have lobbied heavily for an easing of the restrictions, Beijing's broader scrutiny of multinationals has intensified. In late July, antimonopoly investigators raided Microsoft offices in four Chinese cities to interrogate managers and copy large amounts of data from hard drives. Qualcomm, a big maker of computer chips and a holder of wireless technology patents, faces a separate antimonopoly investigation.
The increasingly pervasive blocking of the web, together with other problems like severe air pollution in China's urban centres, has led some businesses to transfer employees to regional hubs with more open and speedier internet, like Singapore. And more companies are considering similar moves.
"Companies overlooked internet problems when the economy was booming," said Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group, a Shanghai consulting firm. "But now a lot of companies are asking whether they really need to be in China."
The chief technology officer of a startup in China said it had been especially difficult to use Google Drive this summer, making it a challenge for employees to share files and documents.
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