In its fight with China, Google has taken the path of free expression. “Google had tried to determine whether it could operate an unfiltered search engine in China under the country’s laws. But Chinese officials, the company said Monday, made it “crystal clear . . . that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.”
As a result, Google has made what analysts described as a shrewd but risky business decision — to redirect users in mainland China to its search engine based in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China that operates its own economic and political systems.”
The Chinese were predictably upset with the decision: “Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks,” said a Chinese government official. “This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts,” the official said.
According to the most recent poll of foreign firms doing business with Beijing, Google is hardly the only one having a hard time. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Beijing issued its most negative report on the business climate here in years. In a survey of 203 member companies, the chamber said, 38 percent felt shut out under new government policies designed to replace imports of high-technology products with Chinese-made goods. Last year, fewer than 25 percent of companies polled said they felt unwelcome in China.”
Foreign firms entering the vast Chinese market were supposed to bring economic principles to that country, which in turn was supposed to influence a shift in the country’s politics as well. Namely, economic freedom was supposed to give birth to political freedom. Doesn’t seem to be working out so well, though, does it. It seems much more likely that the Chinese are using the know-how they’ve gleaned from all the foreign investment and are saying a not-so-polite ‘No thank you’ to becoming a more open society. Plus, it doesn’t help that the US now owes its financial stability to China’s purchasing of our debt.