No doubts here: this is Cold War 2.0.

(The World Cup, for what it’s worth, looks a fair bit like World War II 2.0: last night, Paraguay’s two extra goals sent Japan home, much like Little Boy and Fat Man “did their stuff” 65 years ago; England is out and the US “just joined” in the last minute, qualifying for the Group of 16.)

The Chinese media have started descending on Google, once again, like vultures feeding on their prey. This time it’s about Google about to lose its mandatory ICP licence, required if it is to use a mainland Chinese web server.

Of course, having engaged in anti-censorship moves to the extent of getting the US Congress all excited, Google stands a fat chance of getting its ICP licence renewed. This is especially the case since March, when it decided (very much “unilaterally”) to have its google.cn domain shift to the uncensored google.com.hk server. In response, the Chinese censors have upped the censorship on Google to such an extent that you are deemed reactionary (and hence eligible for a government-mandated connection reset) if you so much as Google up a carrot (which uses the character 胡, used also — no surprise — in the Chinese name of the Chinese president, Hu Jintao).

The site, as it stands right now, still leads to google.com.hk, but this time, you have to click a link to continue your trek. (So much for user-friendliness.)

The Beijing Evening News goes further in saying that Google Maps might be in a little bit of trouble as well, for it might run afoul of mapping rules. (The government doesn’t want you to leak stuff about sensitive sites — we’ll let you guess here what they must be.) Baidu, its biggest fiend, is in; Google.cn is not.

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokespersons were quick to give the standard response of not mentioning Google by name while repeating that they welcome companies who do business in China in accordance with government regulations.

(And provided you don’t report to your home country’s congress when the Chinese government starts going after what you can’t publish.)