Alternative View on Google/China

While I understand the angst about the recent Google decision to accept Chinese conditions for market entry. I would like to point out an alternative view, (it may not necessarily be mine!!)

Yes, Google did conform to Chinese government regulations, in much the same way Google is also complying with a host of U.S. regulations, including the largest regressive tax on U.S. Business - Sarbanes Oxley, a particularly onerous set of U.S. regulations. Other foreign owned companies listed on an American stock exchanges must also comply. I am also sure that Google is complying with other foreign regulations in countries in which it operates. Yes, free speech is different and it is abhorrent that the Chinese government chooses to censor what its citizens can see. However..........................

The Internet and the free flow of information is the Trojan horse of democracy for China

For the Chinese, control of the internet is a cruel illusion and Google is rightly letting them have their ‘illusion’. Ultimately the Mandarin censors will be overwhelmed, attacked and thwarted, their illusion will quickly crumble. Information always finds a way to be free. Chinese hackers have already publicly announced hacks to get around a sophisticated network of filters. The masses will use the internet to communicate; underground networks will develop. Internet aided technologies such as IM, wireless communications, blogs, and broad access to the net will revolutionize the flow of information, once the monopoly of the Chinese goverment. The Chinese, will of course try and continue to filter, censor and block objectionable information, it won't work. Snippets of 'subversive' information will slip through, sophisticated users will find ways to reach the information they want, regardless of the Chinese authoriites attempts to stop it. The internet is a product of the U.S.A and no county has exploited it more than the United States, as much as the Chinese may like there will be no ‘Asian Internet’ thus the positive influence of America and other western culture will be felt by the Chinese. Freedom, Liberty, Democracy and Freedom of the Press is imprinted on the DNA of the internet through the inherent free flow of information.

Let the Chinese have their illusions, for their kind it is the beginning of the end. The Internet will contribute to thier demise. And Google will have helped bring it down.