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Google To Restart Talks With China
eldavojohn writes "Following the infamous attacks allegedly carried out by the Chinese government, Google sent a strongly worded message to China. However, despite the show of plumage, Google.cn continues to operate filtered. While both parties are silent about any resolution, Google and China have planned to restart talks and negotiations over Google operating unfiltered in China. (If you have a subscription, you can read about the story from its original source, the Wall Street Journal.) The print edition of the WSJ names Google policy executive Ross LaJeunesse as their representative meeting with Chinese officials. Meanwhile, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, has officially rejected the claim that the attacks were sanctioned by the Chinese government. He said, 'Google's statement from January 12 is groundless, and we are firmly opposed to it. China administers its internet according to law, and this position will not change. China prohibits hacking and will crack down on hacking according to law.'"
Is it just Google that you want to stand up to the Chinese, or should the rest of the businesses in the world follow suit? Indeed, should our governments "show a little spine"? Get into the real world.
It would be nice if Google could find some third solution. I don't see it yet, but I'm not there.
1. Set up servers to be run remotely -- probably already done.
2. Configure equipment to failover to other sites in the even of outage/bombing. Probably already done.
3. Get employees out of China for a "meeting" at Google HQ.
4. Turn off filtering.
5. ???????
6. Watch the mayhem ensue. And profit.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
Let's face it -- Google's not pulling out of China because the market is too big and China's not going to back down on filtering. The way I see this playing out is a deal where Google is allowed to operate unfiltered on their end, however the Chinese government places in-line content filters down stream from Google, between their network and the rest of country. This way the content still gets blocked, but Google can say "its not our fault."
Don't forget that in another 10-15 years 10% of their population won't be able to find a spouse. For what it's worth, I doubt that kind of societal pressure can be dealt with safely without great loss of life. I might be wrong, but if I certainly wouldn't want to be the one responsible for the country when 100,000,000+ young men are desperate, lonely, and sexually repressed.