After tense negotiations, China has renewed Google’s ICP (Internet Content Provider) license, meaning that Google will continue to operate as a search engine in China.

The future of Google.cn recently became very unpredictable. Google was redirecting…

Is Apple doing enough to reach Chinese customers? Not even close, if you ask Lenovo. According to The Financial Times, Lenovo’s founder Liu Chuanzhi said his company is "lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and…

Google has decided to call off its efforts to redirect all China users to its Hong Kong search site, sort of. Instead of automatically sending searchers straight on to google.com.hk, the search giant once again serves up a Google China home page—complete with a faux search box image that sends users to the Hong Kong site when they click in it.

The change may seem minimal, but Google hopes it will be enough to appease the Chinese government—and to keep its license to operate an Internet business in the country.

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Last year, a team of writers from the European Centre for International Political Economy suggested that Chinas draconian Internet filters could be defanged by hauling the country before the World Trade Organization, claiming that censorship is a trade issue.

Yesterday, the European Commission blessed this approach as Commissioner Neelie Kroes made a trip to China. "It is one of those issues that needs to be tackled within the WTO," she said of censorship, according to Reuters. "I am pushing wherever I can just to get European enterprises a level playing field in China and the other way around. It should be reciprocal."

According to the earlier paper on the subject, the WTO would be unlikely to take on the basic system of filtering. But, said the authors, "There is a good chance that a [WTO] panel might rule that permanent blocks on search engines, photo-sharing applications and other services are inconsistent with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) provisions, even given morals and security exceptions."

The arguments about trade were boosted earlier this year when Google refused to continue its Web search censorship in China and eventually relocated its Chinese search functionality to Hong Kong.

The WTO does allow for broad exemptions necessary to "protect public morals" and to "maintain public order" —two of the same arguments Chinese authorities have always made to defend their censorship. But WTO rules have established high thresholds for gaining an exemption, and any measures taken under the exemptions must be "proportional."

American high-tech trade groups and free speech groups are also onboard with the "take it to the WTO" approach to Chinas censorship—companies like Microsoft want the issue resolved, but generally dont think it fair that they are the ones burdened with it. Instead, they would prefer that the US or EU step up and deal with the issue governmentally. The WTO might be one of the best places to do this, since its one of the forums where foreign countries can exert leverage on China.

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The iPad’s official international launch may have been delayed until the end of May, but citizens of or travelers to China can get their mitts on the (almost) next best thing courtesy of a flourishing bootleg electronics market.

Just north of Hong Kong lies the city of Shenzhen, notorious for its sales of counterfeit versions of popular gadgets like the iPhone, game consoles, and now the iPad. Reuters reports that pirated versions of Apple’s new tablet can be had for about 2,800 yuan or $410 USD, cheaper than the official counterpart.

One version shown had three USB ports and ran Windows, but it’s “just the first rough version,” said the shop owner. “Eventually, the factories will be able to make a much better copy.” Meanwhile, given Shenzhen’s reputation, no one seems much surprised at the quick turnaround behind a growing selection of “alternative” iPads in China: “China is basically a market that has the ability to clone everything,” said Beijing-based researcher Edward Yu, CEO of Analysis International.

If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then Shenzhen in its own way pays excessive tribute to Apple’s new “magical” gadget. Would you ever consider a knock-off version of a new gadget, or are bootlegs best reserved for fragrances and live Phish tapes?

[img credit: REUTERS/Bobby Yip]

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Tags: apple, bootleg, china, counterfeits, gadgets, ipad, knock-offs, Shenzhen