> If all sources of information in China sucked, and citizens knew about it. This is wishful thinking. The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. 70 y

> If all sources of information in China sucked, and citizens knew about it. This is wishful thinking. The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. 70 years later communism still sucks, yet in China it endures. Being born in an ex-communist country from the Warsaw pact I can tell you ... the only reason USSR fell was because of hunger. Without hunger, which is a primal instinct, human beings can adapt to everything else. In other words, for as long as China's economy is strong, their political system has virtually no opposition, censorship is part of politics and this isn't an issue that the population can vote for. China blocks Internet sources that aren't filtered via their firewall. China also blocks many VPN services. They also use tactics like making foreign online services unbearably slow. That Google is or isn't doing business in China has absolutely no consequence on the Chinese' ability to search for unfiltered information. > If all sources of information in China sucked The problem that you're not seeing is that in order to assess whether something sucks or not, you have to have an alternative to compare it with. In absence of an alternative, this scenario will not happen. So while I agree that Google shouldn't go to China, because it would be against our interest for obvious reasons, trying to frame it as not being in the interest of the Chinese people is wrong, possibly dishonest.