Because it could topple the wall and end the party
Google’s decision to stop helping the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censor the Chinese Internet is just the kind of peaceful act that made the Berlin Wall come down.
Google, the world's top Internet search engine, announced Jan. 11 it will no longer censor results on its Chinese-language search engine and may shut its offices in China, because of “highly sophisticated” cyber-attacks on its website and the Gmail accounts of Chinese rights activists. California-based Google said the attacks included theft of intellectual property and also targeted at least 20 other companies in technology, finance and chemicals.
The Google “incident” could be an omen of the Chinese “Wall” and regime coming down.
In ancient China people believed in cosmic timing: when conditions are right, events occur naturally. This was certainly true when communism fell in Eastern Europe and Russia. Although U.S. President Ronald Reagan spoke the words (to then Soviet leader Gorbachev), “Mr. President, tear down that wall!” in reality it was the timing that was right--or ripe--including people’s consciousness, that made the Berlin Wall come down--without a single shot fired. To most it seemed unexpected, effortless, and magical.
It shall be seen whether Google’s motto: “Don’t be Evil,” will prove to be a similarly “magical” mantra to bring down China’s Fire Wall and China’s communist regime. Chinese “netizens” placing bouquets of flowers and candles outside Google’s Beijing office is reminiscent of the peace prayers in Dresden and Berlin.
Chinese Internet users were also excited by the sudden, unexpected unblocking of some Web filters. In a Jan. 16 opinion article in the Financial Times, James Kynge said that with Google allowing uncensored searches in Chinese for the first time, China’s citizens have been indulging their curiosity ahead of a widely expected crackdown.
Besides the consequences the CCP may have to face from a thoroughly informed public in China, there is also the reality that the Internet attack on Google may cause an exodus of foreign companies from China and other repercussions by trade partners around the world which would be a blow to the CCP financially and to its reputation.
Kynge in his article states, “...Google's defiance of China's censorship regime is indicative of much more than a single company's decision to reassert its open society principles over the pragmatism by which it originally entered the Chinese market, agreeing then to self-censor in return for business licenses. Google's move may suggest that the accommodations made by western companies in China can extend only so far before contorted values snap back into place.”
Reuters recently reported that many large foreign companies have in the past years withdrawn from or sold down their investments in China because of either fierce competition or restrictions that required foreigners to give control to Chinese partners. Among them are: Time Warner Cinemas, eBay, Fosters (Australia’s biggest brewer), Yahoo! Inc., Dutch grocer Royal Ahold, Fashion retailer Giordano International.
The German magazine “Handelsblatt” commented in a January 15 article titled: “Fear of Data Theft Threatens Commerce with China,” saying, “The Internet attack on Google in China has scared German companies. Espionage and the growing pressure by Beijing to give up sensitive information impedes business with the rising super power. German economic circles react with alarm--and are even warning about an exodus of companies.”
Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said this: "There are likely some functionaries in China who were surprised by Google's announcement--the country has become used to the idea that they could simply ignore criticism from abroad. But the Chinese government looks to have made the same mistake made by so many other dictatorships: Democracies can, for a time, be easy partners as they don't tend to overreact. But one shouldn't push them too far. When their core values are threatened ... they will defend themselves."
