CircleID

Sorry, but Ian Paul is no China expert. The article's assumption that no business can afford to leave China is questionable, and its assumption that jawboning by Hilary Clinton will make the Chinese Communist Party soften its censorship policies is laughable. US diplomatic pressure has never succeeded in changing anything China does. The only way to change China's approach is to generate domestic political pressure and to threaten its economic growth, and by threatening to leave, Google seems to have succeeded in doing that (see Rebecca MacKinnon's article). China needs foreign investment and it needs to be integrated into the global economy just as much as the rest of the world needs it; and if Chinese people who use Google make noise about being denied access to it it makes the consequences of China's censorship more visible to the public there. So Google's move makes sense on pragmatic grounds, if you ask me. China accounts for less than 3% of Google's revenues and doing business there can be a big hassle. The only threat the CCP will take seriously is the type of threat Google made. Good for them!