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After a couple of months of talks with the Chinese authorities, Google announced on Monday March 22nd that it had stopped censoring search results on its China portal, Google.cn, and was automatically redirecting its users to Google.com.hk, an uncensored portal in Hong Kong. The company said it would try to maintain an advertising-sales operation in China, and would continue research and development work there. However, it acknowledged that the Chinese authorities might block access to its site, in effect putting it out of business. Google's decision follows several attempts to hack its e-mail system, ever stronger censorship of its searches, legal complaints tied to its digitisation of books, and—always a worrying sign in China—growing vitriol in the state-controlled...