Microsoft staying in China, regardless of Google's move

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer on Friday signaled his company would not change its business strategy in China -- even as its competitors are growing increasingly incensed by the country's strict Web policies.

Separately, Zhang Yaqin, chairman of Microsoft's Asia-Pacific research organ, told a Reuters reporter that Microsoft had no intention of following Google's lead and reconsidering its business there altogether, citing China as one of the world's largest search markets.

"Regardless of whether or not Google stays, we will aggressively promote our search and cloud computing," he said.

Ultimately, Microsoft's dual assurances this week arrive as businesses and countless lawmakers are growing more critical of China's strict Internet censorship rules.

Years of frustration -- on top of a recent cyberattack believed to have originated there -- have promtped Google, in particular, to announce it will no long self censor its search results.

Moreover, the search-engine giant and a handful of other firms are now pressing White House officials to take the issue to the World Trade Organization, on the grounds that Web censorship inhibits foreign commerce.

It is unclear whether the U.S. Trade Representative supports such an approach. But many congressional lawmakers have recently signaled an interest in taking at least some course of corrective action to address China's censorship standards.

A forthcoming bill by Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) would levy civil or criminal penalties on U.S. Internet companies that fail to adequately safeguard human rights in foreign countries, China included. However, it is still unclear how that legislation might work, much less whether other lawmakers and businesses would support it.

Still, increase commercial and political pressure seems not to have deterred Microsoft from maintaining its current China operations. Some even believe Microsoft is now moving to fill the prospective void that could be created by the withdrawal of its competitors from China's sizable Web market.

"We hope to achieve a relatively important place in the China search market," Zhang said. "But we must be very patient, we still need a lot of time."

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