The latter would be my takeaway as well, based on how effectively Google's search technology was extricated from China -- to Baidu's and the surveillance state'

The latter would be my takeaway as well, based on how effectively Google's search technology was extricated from China -- to Baidu's and the surveillance state's benefit, despite the results from Baidu being about as effective at finding useful information as AltaVista was at the end of it's reign.