Google vs. China

Google has announced it will cease cooperation with Chinese censorship efforts and close its Chinese operations unless it can negotiate a new arrangement with the Beijing government. Its goal: Greater openness for users of its search engine.

Google didn’t have an especially large presence in China, but in a nation with 300 million computer users the potential was enormous. That’s why the company deserves applause for its defiance of China’s intrusive efforts to curb access to information on the Web.

Google had been dealing with a series of attacks by hackers intent on gaining access to e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights advocates, and the source codes of high-tech companies. Google rated the assaults as “highly sophisticated.”

It’s too bad the company’s foray into the Chinese market has come to this, but Google obviously felt it had no choice. Along with the assaults by hackers, it was under constant criticism from human rights advocates for its complicity with China’s censorship. In a statement, Google said over the next few weeks it would discuss with the government the basis “on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all.”

Google’s announcement was a blow to Beijing’s prestige. China wants to see itself as an advanced, modern country, but its handling of Google is a reminder that it has yet to develop a form of government appropriate to the modern world and a global economy.

— The Kansas City (Mo.) Star