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January 21, 2010

My Two Bits on Google in China

Last Saturday, the Sacramento Bee ran my op-ed on Google's leadership in China. I begin:

While most American companies are rushing into China, why are so many Americans cheering Google pulling out?

This week Google announced it had discovered attempts to hack into the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. This prompted Google to declare it was ready to leave China if it could not provide honest search results to the people of China.

At the same time that Google was boldly threatening to pack its bags, General Motors was announcing that its sales of cars in China had nearly doubled last year. Yet, few people urged GM to pull up stakes even though it is doing business in a society that lacks political freedoms.

What explains this divergent reaction?

Posted by Anupam Chander on January 21, 2010 at 02:14 PM in Digitization, Globalization | Permalink

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Comments

Dr. Chander,

As is the case with most things concerning corporate and government America, lay people suffer from chronic and severe information deficit. What we know is framed and disseminated by the same carriers claiming to be champions of free press. They are also financial and political beneficiaries to this claim. When I read corporate press releases and government press releases, I do so with a critical ear, because there is already much intention behind what is written and released. For example, you mention that the Obama administration is investing funds in new technologies that will help activists evade internet detection in a place like China. Yet, can't these technologies be used and also as a weapon freedom, by saboteurs? Furthermore, has the United States really shown its responsibility as a nation when entrusted with powerful technologies? Hiroshima? Nagasaki? Weapons to Israel? Weapons to Iraq? COINTELPRO? Iran-Contra? The 600+ assassination attempts of Fidel Castro? The tens of US-induced oustings of developing world leaders? You've seemingly written the US off as a player in the anti-democratic game in one sentence. I myself am not so convinced.

When it comes to our economic "ally", China, the media has a love-hate relationship. They love the economic opportunity and the new frontiers, which are both patently American, yet they are very quick to point out problems with the Chinese government, a historic enemy and newsworthy topic, for sales if nothing else. These same news writers, however, write their stories while blissfully ignoring or failing to draw the obvious parallels between Chinese policies and those of the United States. While China chases after internal threats to their autocratic regime, the United States extends its non-democracy around the world. US tactics are generally much more subversive, as they are often dressed in sheep's skin. For example, if we are critical of US international aid policies, we would quickly discover that the US frequently "hacks" other nations for population data. Sure, it is a willing exchange, but it is an exchange made by unequal brokers. Is this not an equal attack on democracy and the freedoms of marginalized people around the world. The difference between China and the United States is only a matter of scale--the size of the manhunt--and the respectability afforded to one, but not the other. While you applaud Google policies in China, you should simultaneously criticize American policies in America and around the world. Remember that Bush-era [i]freedoms[/i] won for the Executive Branch have carried over into the Obama White House. Our government can do what China is criticized for through legal means afforded by our national legislature. That is how all things are in America: things considered corrupt in other countries are legalized and legitimized by the government.

I appreciate that you have a place for this dialogue and I look forward to your response. For your information, I am an American living in Lebanon studying public health.

Posted by: Kareem | Jan 31, 2010 2:27:23 AM

Selling cars to China while yanking their chain because of Google makes perfect sense to me.

My (probably too simple) analogy: If a doctor sees a patient with a tumor on his kidney, he removes tumor or the kidney, not the man's appendix.

Yours Crankily,
The New York Crank

Posted by: N.Y. Crank | Feb 11, 2010 7:59:19 AM

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