Google's War on China Is a Great Leap Backward
From the very beginning when the United States gave China MFN (Most Favored Nation Trade Status) the wager has been that through increased trade and interaction, China would be brought closer into the western world. This bet has worked --some say a little too well.
Similarly, the way to introduce more free speech in China is to do so in small moves within their laws step by step.
I'd rather Google stay in China, be sneaky, get a ton of users and provide those users technology tools to evade government censorship. If I were to take bets on Google programmers versus government censors, who wouldn't wager on Google?
The attacks most likely by internal Chinese agencies are disturbing but it appears as though Google's internal security was able to fend most of this off. If Google tries to get the U.S. government involved it will only make the situation worse and the Chinese are unlikely to back down or modify their laws. This all puts at risk a 20% share in China which aside from it's impact on state control in China, is valuable monetarily.
Sun Tzu said "If you know not the enemy or yourself, you will succumb in every battle". This move strikes me as showing evidence of neither and rather naive.
The right strategy for Google is to continue to offer its services and encourage openness and discussion by skirting around the rules as much as possible. As this openness prevails, the Chinese citizens will demand less censorship over time from their government.
Over time, by working within the ridiculous system that China has set up, the openness that the internet engenders will bring liberty to China. Staging a fit now with little leverage is a big leap backwards.
Disclosure: Long Google.
The preceding article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.
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