China vs. Google

Google's exit is not surprising but I was again outraged by the sheer amount of censorship on the internet in China. As political as this issue appears, I'm not here to comment on the fight between Google and the Chinese government. Instead, I'm intrigued by the responses from the Netizens in China (reported here by BBC). In fact I was disheartened to see the following:

"The vast majority of the comments and blogs on Chinese mainland websites appear to express hate and anger towards Google.

But tweets and comments that appear to come from users in mainland China on websites based outside the country express sympathy and support towards Google, and anger towards the Chinese government."

Apparently many Netizens in China are not happy, not because of the loss of Google but because Google's action angered their nationalist sentiment and patriotism. This anger is precisely something that I don't understand. What did Google do wrong? Nothing. Google left because it lifted its filter on censored websites. Why did it stop filtering? Because it was a defensive reaction against the hack into Gmail accounts in order to monitor the emails of human rights activists. So if there's anyone to blame, it should be the hackers or people behind the hack. Google has done nothing offensive to the Chinese government. It has obeyed the laws and regulations until the hack occurred. So why are the Netizens angry at Google? This seems nothing but irrational to me. Further, their anger suggests something disturbing to me. This implies that those Netizens have agreed or implicitly believed that internet censorship is permissible or even should be endorsed. How ludicrous!

Frankly, I bet Google does not give a damn about leaving or staying. Why? Google only has 33% market share in China and its revenue only accounts for a trivial 0.8% of global revenue in 2009. In fact I believe that Google has already unwillingly made a lot of compromises when it entered China four years ago. This time the highly organized hack into Gmail accounts has tipped Google over the edge.

So who is it hurting? The Chinese Netizens. No correction, the elite group of Netizens who actually use Google, which comprises of students, white-collars, and a large proportion of middle and upper class Internet users. I bet it is those Netizens that express sympathy and support for Google. This is good news. At least there are some intelligent minds out there. The sad news is that they can't be too resilient. There is nothing they can do to keep Google. I feel tremendously sorry for them for their loss of freedom and of access to information. Besides the elite Netizens, the absence of Google can severely hurt the development of the internet in China. Google has helped and prompted the development of several prominent Chinese web companies (e.g. Baidu.com, tom.com). As the chief executive of Chinalabs.com said, the vast majority of Chinese internet companies couldn't care more about research and innovation, and all they do is copying technology. Without Google, internet in China is likely to become sterile and stifling, and eventually a dead end.

The loss is China's. The funny thing is that many people in China do not realize it and they are even angry at Google. As bewildering as it seems, I suddenly realized that I cannot blame them, for, I might very likely have been angry at Google if I were in China. Why? The power of the situation. Every time I was in China for longer than a month, I began to think in a Chinese mindset after the initial period of frustration and resilience. I was astounded by how malleable my beliefs and values are. I began to feel patriotic and feel annoyed when someone criticized China. How? Because I was immersed in the surrounding environment, via the influence of the media, the censored internet, friends, relatives, and all the propaganda around me. It's a process that I never fully understand but it works. I think that the power of the situation is the ultimate tool that the government is using. So, probably I shouldn't be so upset at these helpless, innocent Netizens. I believe that every human being yearns for freedom and information, but this desire is just concealed. What can they do...