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"I'm disgusted by the levels to which the Chinese Government can stoop." Half of the surprise I received reading this article was my shock that the Chinese gov
by rabidgnat 17y ago
"I'm disgusted by the levels to which the Chinese Government can stoop."
Half of the surprise I received reading this article was my shock that the Chinese government would attack profitable companies like Google. Sure, they've always attacked foreign governments, but China's government depends on US companies spending Dollars overseas. Since consumer spending is down in USA, it only seems natural for China to start banking on the successful industries of today, like internet advertising. Is the political danger of human rights activists really worth more than the money that Google brings? Or were their egos so high that they thought they could get away with it, either by avoiding detection or keeping Google at status quo
Maybe the Chinese government + military is just too huge to get everyone to toe the party line.
- codexon 17y agoLast time I checked, the Chinese didn't need Google. They have communist party approved Baidu.
- garply 17y agoGoogle is not very big in China anyway, the Chinese gov't doesn't stand to lose much.
- enomar 17y agoA company like Google saying that it isn't safe to do business in China has to at least annoy them to some degree.
- onoj 17y agoWhat is really interesting to me (i live in china) is that now that they have made this public it is impossible for them to continue doing business in china. Due to the social rules here if they wanted to save the situation in any way it should have been done privately. Given that they are clever people they know that announcing this will kill the china business. It is in essence a "slap", "we're out of here".
- realitygrill 17y agoAh yes, face. How is the news spreading in China?
- rms 17y agoTry http://twitter.com/search?q=%23googleCN http://twitter.com/search?q=%23googleCN and translate.google.com
- garply 17y agoWhy did this get downvoted? I didn't say anything incendiary and I don't think my statement was factually incorrect. The truth is, the Chinese government doesn't stand to lose much at all by blocking Google. Politics trumps business here - and even if it didn't, all blocking Google does is help promote local Chinese competitors, which is something the gov't likes to do anyway.
- nandemo 17y agoThe Chinese government aren't attacking Google. They're merely using Google to attack activists. No doubt they do that to Chinese companies too, it's just that the Chinese companies will never complain publicly.
- pmorici 17y agoWhy are you surprised? Chinese companies steal designs and pirate US products as a matter of routine.
- rabidgnat 17y agoBecause it looks like the attack is a government-based attack. As presented in the media, IP theft is par-for-the-course in China, but the only benefactors from reading the personal information of activists are those in the government, or those with strong government ties. This wasn't just a mere theft of intellectual property, this was a case of biting the hand that feeds China. China needs money flowing into the country in order to sustain it's big growth rate. They've traditionally gotten it through dirt-cheap manufacturing costs and exports. Google's marketshare is small, but they're very well connected in the US and are probably the US company most likely to start a "China-free" product trend. If it takes hold, the US would get a little bit of extra leverage (something we've sorely been lacking lately)