Google and China

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

the tl;dr, if an unbiased one is possible: Google blames the Chinese Government for cyberattacks against human rights activists and plans to pull google.cn out of China if things don't change.

what's interesting to read is the "links to this post" on the bottom, some of which give this article "A new approach to China" a different title and spin. On one of these sites, there sits a lone comment about how Google, like the rest of America, thinks that its duty is to show other countries "the light" until they mature into capitalists/democracies/Christians.

Unfortunately there's no way I can talk about this without being personal or unbiased. It is very hard for a Chinese person to let someone criticize the Chinese government. Most Chinese people believe that the western media has an anti-China bias and that censorship by the Chinese government is fine (though a bit overboard). However, I trust google not to pull any stupid shit.

Google doesn't have much to gain from an anti-China message; since it's 2006 entry into China the controversy has really died down. People seem to have accepted Google's "greater good" rhetoric. All was going well until Google decided hacking into the gmail accounts of human rights activists was too much. There no longer exists the "greater good" and I will applaud Google for having the courage to say 'I was wrong'. They could have tried to hide this from the public, pretend nothing was wrong and deny all knowledge... But they made the right decision. For truthfully presenting me with this deep moral dilemma, I will say

thank you

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