I'm sure that the average Chinese internet user is just thrilled at the knowledge that Google is actively complying with the stipulations put into place by their government on the grounds that some is better than none. Doubly so in light of Google getting into a legal hissy fit with the US Department of Justice over search logs:
Google said Tuesday it would launch versions of its search and news Web sites in China that censor material deemed objectionable to authorities there, reasoning that users getting limited access to content was better than none.
The new local Google site, expected to be launched on Wednesday at Google.cn, will include notes at the bottom of results pages that disclose when content has been removed, said Andrew McLaughlin, senior policy counsel for Google.
"Google.cn will comply with local Chinese laws and regulations," he said in a statement. "In deciding how best to approach the Chinese--or any--market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interest of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions."
Anyone else get sick of that "the law is the law" bullshit when companies use it to justify cooperating with repressive regimes? Yes, Google has an obligation to its stockholders to make the most money that it can, but surely there comes a point where what matters is right and wrong. The ugly part in all of this is that by continuing to trade so much with China, we are effectively saying that we agree with how they treat their people. It's a little hard to say that we support freedom abroad when our government turns a blind eye toward trade with countries that treat their ordinary people a little closer to cattle than real, free citizens.
Free trade has had no appreciable liberalizing effect on China's government. The country is still a repressive bastion of tyranny and human rights violations. In fact, their government has grown even more efficient at suppressing its opposition thanks to the advent of many modern technologies. It's far easier to build a sophisticated and thorough surveillance system for HTTP than the telephone system because the former is an order or magnitude or more easier to automate. Our continued trade relationship with China will not only not help the average Chinese become freer, but rather it will make their government more entrenched and put our people in greater risk of poverty and even war with a newly empowered China. Just because China is not a military superpower today, doesn't mean it won't have the ability to hold its own in a war against us at some point in the next five to ten years if their economy continues to grow and they continue to funnel significant amounts of their incoming capital into their military. So, I think it's only fitting that our foreign policy toward China should be inspired by the spirit of our War for Independence:
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen.
--Samuel Adams
Some things are worth more than wealth, liberty and morality are two of them. That's why I am willing to pay higher prices for goods made in countries other than China. If liberty is worth more to you than wealth, do yourself a favor and never shop at a Wal-Mart if you can because the sheer volume of goods in there that are made in the Communist Elite's Rapocracy of China is nauseating.
Very true DBS, very true. I wish that there was a legal penalty for doing business with repressive regimes like China, something like an extra 15-20% tariff on goods imported from those countries. The fact of the matter is that for all of the quality of life garbage used in defense of Wal-Mart and other PRC-butt buddies, trading with these countries is still flat out wrong. We ought to be isolating China, not encouraging its growth. I guess the old Communist saying was true... maybe we will end up selling them the rope that they will use to hang us with.
If this was 1936 instead of 2006, Google would be trying to explain why doing business with the Third Reich was good for the Jews. All the touchy-feely crap in the world won't change the fact that Google is a corporation and they're main goal is profit. Nothing wrong with profit, just hypocrisy.