Not sure what The Economist or Colonialist Britain has to do in all this, but how are we to interpret that neither Google nor Facebook - nor pretty much any ent

Not sure what The Economist or Colonialist Britain has to do in all this, but how are we to interpret that neither Google nor Facebook - nor pretty much any enterprise issuing from a liberal democracy - can operate freely in China? What do the people educated in Chinese history make of that?