Google has decided to challenge China's censorship and surveillance of the internet by offering encrypted Web searches for those inside the country by default, a move the company says is part of privacy internet technology it's increasingly rolling out around the world.

China has one of the most controlling and intrusive networks in the world; with its censorship system that routinely blocks out news websites, social media, and other content that might be "pro-Western" often called the Great Firewall of China. With Google's new encrypted search feature, Chinese internet authorities will have a harder time blocking out search results and tracking what users are viewing online.

The new encrypted web searches for China is part of Google's efforts to combat increasing surveillance and censorship, both in the East and West. According to a report by the Washington Post, the new initiative by Google is designed to "thwart surveillance by government intelligence agencies, police, and hackers who, with widely available tools, can view emails, search queries and video chats when that content is unprotected."

It's part of Google's response to the revelations in 2013 of the National Security Agency's surveillance of the internet, and WaPo says it involves making "major new investments" in encryption across the world. "The revelations of this past summer underscored our need to strengthen our networks. Among the many improvements we've made in recent months is to encrypt Google Search by default around the world," said a Google spokesperson. "This builds on our work over the past few years to increase the number of our services that are encrypted by default and encourage the industry to adopt stronger security standards."

"No matter what the cause is, this will help Chinese netizens to access information they've never seen before," said Percy Alpha, co-founder of GreatFire.org, a Great Firewall monitoring group, to WaPo. "It will be a huge headache for Chinese censorship authorities. We hope other companies will follow Google to make encryption by default."

This is a long-term project for Google. The company's CEO, Eric Schmidt, optimistically stated in November of 2013 that he thought censorship could be a thing of the past within a decade: "First they try to block you; second, they try to infiltrate you; and third, you win. I really think that's how it works. Because the power is shifted ... I believe there's a real chance that we can eliminate censorship and the possibility of censorship in a decade."

Censorship of Google in China was a topic of controversy years ago when Google.cn was founded in 2005 and soon after was accused of self-censorship in deference to China's rules -- along with violating Google's motto "Don't be evil." Google only announced it would stop censoring search results on Google.cn in 2010 in response to cyberattacks launched by the country against Google and other businesses and organizations.