Google making a big splash today in Asia with the announcement that they are "reviewing the feasibility of operations in China" as a result of a hacker attack aimed at procuring information from gmail accounts of human rights activists.
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
Never heard of a company willing to sacrifice the golden apple of China over censorship restrictions, particularly once they've already engaged. Google should be applauded. I gave them a lot of grief when google.cn came out as a willing participant in censorship, severely restricting searches on the June 4 Tiananmen massacre, human rights, etc.
At the time, Google played that old card of "better to engage on China's terms than not engage at all." It's a familiar refrain. Here's a reminder:
[Google] argues it can play a more useful role in China by participating than by boycotting it, despite the compromises involved.
"While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission," a statement said.
Hard to say if Google has much leverage in China. Estimates put it at a little over a third of China's search engine traffic (Baidu is the big favorite).
But still, the message is one that other companies, and governments, should pay attention to. It's clear that, regardless of whether you're playing by the PRC's rules or not, if you have information that they want, they will go to illegal means to get it. Who's to say that PRC hackers wouldn't go (or haven't already gone, more accurately) to the same lengths to acquire trade secrets?
Is access to a big, restricted and censored marketplace worth the risks of compromising your global operations? Google says no. My guess is that they won't be the last.