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Yes, of course. But I think I was responding more to the linked article and what seemed to be the original claim that China hasn't ruled out using force to take

Yes, of course. But I think I was responding more to the linked article and what seemed to be the original claim that China hasn't ruled out using force to take Taiwan. My point regarding that is, 1. Xi's sabre-rattling is nothing new. He's not the first scoundrel in Beijing to level these threats. And, 2. I doubt Google is basing their decision on any of this. I think sometimes Westerners are shocked by how belligerent the Chinese government has become. Actually, the CCP has always been belligerent and their demands of and threats against our treaty allies have always been truculent and unreasonable. It's just that now we've made these scoundrels very powerful by trading with them. I hope its become clear to everyone that this was a civilization-level strategic blunder - that knee-capping western industrial labour unions probably wasn't worth empowering a new 21st century fascism in Asia.

nostrademons 8y ago
Particularly in Google's case, I doubt they see it as empowering 21st century fascism in Asia. There's no love lost between Google's executive leadership and the Chinese government. China has attempted to directly hack Google and steal its source code and data on multiple occasions, and there have been previous pull-outs over diplomatic relations between the two of them. Rather, I think Google views its China expansion as a way to get an information beachhead on China's 800 million citizens. Once they become an ingrained habit for China's populace, they become very difficult to get rid of (the same way Uber and AirBnB have become virtually impossible to get rid of, despite breaking numerous municipal laws), and can leverage that foothold to expand their influence.