I can't help but think that people are thinking about this the wrong way. Today, activists in China understand that the internet is not a safe place to engage i

I can't help but think that people are thinking about this the wrong way. Today, activists in China understand that the internet is not a safe place to engage in activist activities without extreme precautions. This was less well understood a decade ago and Yahoo really messed up when they handed over account information for an activist. I think Google entering China makes a lot of sense now, is an interesting technical and linguistic problem (how do you build an incredible search engines in a radically different language) and a worthwhile business aim (getting a foothold into the most important economy in the world). Also, to suggest, at this point, that US agencies haven't harmed an incredible number of people by co-opting information from tech companies and service providers would be absurd. Although companies sometimes contemplate how to protect their users (which doubtlessly Google would do in China), this essentially never blocks anyone from starting a company here.