Google, And The Meaning Of Standing Up

Good for Google. Ultimately, the Chinese need Google more than Google needs the Chinese:

On Tuesday, Google had enough. After an investigation revealed that hackers from China had tried to penetrate the computer systems of not just Google, but 20 other American companies in an effort to spy on human rights activists, the search engine struck back. Google lawyer David Drummond exposed the whole sordid affair to the world and declared that from now on, the company’s soul would no longer be for sale. “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all,” he wrote.

...China’s value lies entirely in its undeniable future as the center of commerce in the world; by challenging its government, Google is almost guaranteed to abandon that market. Beijing never backs down, and Larry and Sergey know this. By so starkly challenging China, they have set in motion a chain of events that will almost surely end their relationship with Asia’s most important country.

Even ordinary Chinese seem to know this. Yesterday, as word of Google’s move spread throughout the country, people began to lay wreaths of sad farewell at the entrances to Google’s regional offices, in a Twitter-spread campaign dubbed “GoogleBye.” People accompanied the flowers with notes vowing to find a way around their government’s censorship firewall and reconnect with the world. Meanwhile, Beijing seemed utterly taken aback by this turn of events. Xinhua, the press organ of the government, initially reported that China’s leaders were studying the situation, even as the story ended with some predictable bluster about how Google needs China more than the converse.

...But hey, Google’s got $20 billion in cash with which to absorb this loss. And let’s face it: The company has never replicated its phenomenal American success overseas. So maybe there just wasn’t that much of a downside to Google disengaging with China. The company’s executives might think that, all evidence to the contrary, everyone can still walk back from this precipice.

Or perhaps we’re seeing something entirely new here—a company that knowingly does something that is contrary to its long-term economic interests. Vaclav Havel once said that when the United States forced Serbia to end its rape of Kosovo, this marked the first time in history that a country went to war entirely for humanitarian reasons. Maybe we’re too easy to fool, and there’s some angle we’re missing. But 24 hours into this remarkable move, Google appears to have finally listened to the better angels of its nature.