That depends on whether Yahoo and Microsoft follow suit. If Google is the only one to turn off the censorship, then they've effectively pulled out of China
because Beijing will censor them. If all three of the big search engines turn off censorship, then China has to choose - stop with the censorship, make the
censorship blatant, or close off access to all foreign search engines? (Or, if they're sufficiently paranoid, copy North Korea and drop out of the Internet
altogether... but I can't see that happening; it would be bad for business.)
I can easily imagine somebody in the Chinese government proposing they "spin" this by saying how untrustworthy the foreign companies are - they tear
up their contracts when China treats them the same way they treat local companies.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
because Beijing will censor them. If all three of the big search engines turn off censorship, then China has to choose - stop with the censorship, make the
censorship blatant, or close off access to all foreign search engines? (Or, if they're sufficiently paranoid, copy North Korea and drop out of the Internet
altogether... but I can't see that happening; it would be bad for business.)
I can easily imagine somebody in the Chinese government proposing they "spin" this by saying how untrustworthy the foreign companies are - they tear
up their contracts when China treats them the same way they treat local companies.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012