Is Google Doing Business or Engaging in Politics?

Google is an Internet company with a great reputation, a large organization and a business model that has achieved worldwide success. But its current situation truly leaves people baffled. Google has presented China with a political challenge, and this is a type of situation that most large companies try their best to avoid.

In the past few days, Google has threatened to leave the Chinese market — a move that the Western media has praised and used as a good opportunity to criticize China. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stood up to criticize China, and members of Congress have voiced even harsher opinions. In this incident, Google has been at the center of the storm, and its role is obviously changing.

Initially, Google’s complaint was that its server was being “attacked.” Later, this complaint surprisingly turned into a request for China to stop its Internet censorship. From the common problem of Internet security, Google has jumped to demanding that China change its laws — an act that has truly confused the Chinese people.

Is Google doing business or engaging in politics? If it’s business, then Google should stay within the confines of the business world. If there is a dispute, there is no need to worry; all problems can be solved through business channels. But if Google is trying to influence Chinese politics and social reform, then that completely changes the circumstances of this situation.

Currently, there is controversy regarding China’s management of Internet access, but any changes must be in full accord with China’s current situation and must consider Chinese society’s tolerance for change as the basic standard for making a decision.

Contemporary Chinese society is already considerably open-minded, and the growth of the Internet is constantly driving Chinese society forward. China will inevitably be more and more open in the future. However, there is a limit to the speed with which the process of change occurs. This won’t happen overnight. How wide should China open its doors? How should China pave its path forward? These steps should be taken and planned by the Chinese people themselves. Opinions of the outside world should only serve as consultation. No matter how advanced its technology is, no matter how abundant its resources are, an Internet company that wants to control a society’s rate of change is certainly just being arrogant.

Google has been doing business in China for more than three years, but it seems that Google still has a very limited understanding of Chinese history and current affairs. China is a sovereign state, not a 19th century settlement. Foreign businesses do not have any extraterritorial rights. Anyone who tries to do business in China outside the confines of the law is certainly misunderstanding 21st century China. The constructive criticism and well-intentioned advice of Western society and multinational corporations will certainly boost China’s development. But concealing political agendas and using threats to force China to give in are out of the question.

Google wants China to abolish Internet censorship. The result of this would be similar to what the U.S. Web site Mashable stated in an article: “To think that China would change its rules and allow its citizens unfiltered access to what it believes is objectionable content (e.g. porn), as well as information and images on its greatest atrocities, is absurd.”

China has always been able to grow amid the criticism of some Westerners, so the further criticism that Google has incited is not a big deal. However, the support of the Western media for Google’s withdrawal from China has made the Chinese people more wary.

U.K.’s The Guardian predicts that if Google wants to have a showdown, the Internet world will be split. China certainly does not want this to happen, but China is also unafraid of any sort of trouble and will not be held hostage by such a possibility. Chinese society must stand united against Google’s threat.

Many Chinese people are willing to use Google’s search engine. Without Google in China, there may be a temporary disruption of Chinese people’s Internet activity. Therefore, we welcome Google to stay, but if Google does stay, it must make some adjustments and adapt to Chinese laws. If Google insists on leaving, it will not be a big deal. Google will just be isolating itself from the Chinese market.