14 DAY TRIAL // A Chinese dissident that had his name blocked from search results by the two Internet companies has decided to bring the fight to their ground in order to stand a chance to win. He accused Google and Yahoo! for censoring his name after finding out from friends that no information on his work could be found using the two.
"Since January 1 a lot of friends told me that websites with my name had been closed. They told me it's impossible to search for my information on Google and Yahoo!," he complained. Guo Quan is an expert on classical Chinese literature and the 1937 Nanjing massacre of Chinese civilians by Japanese troops and an enemy to the state of China for claiming to be the leader of the underground New People's Party, which had 10 million members at home and abroad.
No sooner said than done, his blog was shut down by the Chinese cyber police and was demoted by his employer to working the university archives for violating the Constitution, which clearly stipulates that China must be ruled "under the leadership of the Communist Party." The Times Online reports that the claims Guo made were for multi-party elections and the depoliticization of the People's Liberation Army.
He wants to sue the two companies in the United States because they have no legal identity in the Asian country and he hopes that by winning the lawsuit he will attract the world's attention on the dismissal of human rights in China.
As a response, Google stated that it had an agreement with China that it would follow the laws in place and the conditions imposed by the government, in exchange for letting the Mountain View-based company to conduct business inside its borders. The consequence of not following the guidelines clearly stipulated in the accord between the two sides would be that Google would be blocked in China.