Google Outage Shows Risk of Doing Business In China

Hugh Pickens writes "The WSJ reports that widespread disruptions to Google in China over the weekend, halting use of everything from Google's search engine to its Gmail email service to its Google Play mobile-applications store, underscore the uncertainty surrounding Beijing's effort to control the flow of information into the country, as well as the risks that effort poses to the government's efforts to draw global businesses. The source of the disruptions couldn't be determined, but Internet experts pointed to China's Internet censorship efforts, which have been ratcheted up ahead of the 18th Party Congress. 'There appears to be a throttling under way of Web access,' says David Wolf, citing recent articles in foreign media about corruption and wealth in China spurred by the party congress and the fall of former party star Bo Xilai, 'that's their primary concern, people getting news either through Google or through its services.' Beijing risks a backlash if it were to block Google outright on a long-term basis, says Wolf and such a move could put Beijing in violation of its free-trade commitment under the World Trade Organization and make China a less-attractive place to do business. 'If China insists in the medium and long term of creating another Great Firewall between the China cloud and the rest of the world, China will be an increasingly untenable place to do business.'"

Comments

China will be an increasingly untenable place ...

[TheGratefulNet]

to do business?

really?

since when do we CARE ONE BIT about freedom when it comes to the almighty dollar?

we'll be in china even if they start executing puppies and kittens in the streets.

there is nothing in this world that will cause western capitalism to turn its back on china.

stop acting like we have any morals here. we don't. we worship money and anything that gets in its way we will stomp on.

other than that, we could really care less what they do. and they care less about what we do.

as long as money flows, the guys who run things are happy to eat popcorn on the sidelines and watch the world burn.

But china doesn't have rule of Law..

[nweaver]

China lacks rule of law, it only has rule of the rulers.

Thats the big problem with doing business in China, there is no actual Rule of law.

Everyone knows the risk of doing business in china

[erroneus]

I suppose this is just another thing that needs to be repeated until it is generally accepted. You know, kind of like "smoking is bad for you and everyone around you."

There are ample examples of how doing business in China have turned really bad on all scales. It is especially obvious when heavy tech such as aircraft and train manufacturing have been screwed over by the promises of the Chinese government which were later revoked causing amazing damage to the companies who put their faith in what they were told.

We all want to have those WalMart prices in everything we buy. Lower costs of everything from materials and manufacturing to labor and delivery are things we ALL want. But there are risks and I measure those risks with every transaction I make on eBay. (And I am talking about pennies, not billions of dollars.) The risk is heavy on my mind always. But then again, it's the question of risk isn't it?

These days, whether people realize it or not, but the risk to business has largely been shifted to employees and the general population. When things fail or go badly, who feels the pinch worse? The people on wall street or the people on the street? Somehow, we got to a place where risk is socialized and rewards are privatized.

So yeah.... there is risk to doing business with china, but the risk is socialized... it's on all of us and we have little we can say or do about it.