[DogOnTheWeb]

Stephen Levy covers it heavily in "In The Plex".

If my memory serves, they censored Google.cn, but did not block users in China from the un-censored Google.com. The PRC alternated between blocking and unblocking .com.

My understanding of the final straw was the hacking of gmail to steal the communications and network info of Chinese dissidents and activists.

More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_China#Giving_up_Google_...

[mkol2]

That was all part of the official story. It was "only" about 8 years ago so it is available online as well as on HN.

"A new approach to China"

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1048800

"A new approach to China: an update"

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1211090

"China condemns decision by Google to lift censorship"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8582233.stm