Google Threatens to Withdraw From China

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Godhatesusall

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Google won't do it.....

Seriously,does anyone here believe that a huge multi-national corporation will just throw away 1 bn $ just because they "care about censorship"?

Corporations are corporations, and by definition are greedy.
It is people who must force corporations to act differently, but i didnt notice any serious movement to force google to stand against china's censorship policies.
 

Godhatesusall

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[citation][nom]MindfieIds[/nom]Communists are sick puppies! they wanna control every aspect your life! GRRR![/citation]

May i remind you that chinas has stopped being communist loooooooooooong time ago?

I mean, McDonald's,Apple, Microsoft, Google etc all have offices there(and make lots of $$). What kind of communism dictates that the means of production are controlled by individuals?

Better change the phrase to

"Chinese capitalists are sick puppies! they wanna control every aspect of our life! GRRR!"
 

bhaberle

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I assure you it is just a hollow threat. The last line says it all. "Google.cn generates roughly $1 billion for Google." Why would they leave if they generate so much money from it?
 

MindfieIds

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[citation][nom]Godhatesusall[/nom]May i remind you that chinas has stopped being communist loooooooooooong time ago?I mean, McDonald's,Apple, Microsoft, Google etc all have offices there(and make lots of $$). What kind of communism dictates that the means of production are controlled by individuals?Better change the phrase to"Chinese capitalists are sick puppies! they wanna control every aspect of our life! GRRR!"[/citation]

That`s a gorvenment, not a corporation ... `course coporations do their best to direct our lifestyle so that can benefit from it. Gorvenments can order it! ;)
 

steelbox

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1 Billion for Google is not probably much. OK china may have 1.2 billion, but only a fraction of its population have Internet access.
 

Vestin

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[citation][nom]Godhatesusall[/nom]What kind of communism dictates that the means of production are controlled by individuals?[/citation]
The Chinese kind. I'm glad you asked.
They are a communist country with free-market economy. Again - don't make the false (marxist in its nature, BTW) assumption that once you've described the country's economy, you know everything about its government and society.

Also - I believe that while Google does care about profits it also simply wants to make the world a better place. Call me naive, but I believe that Google not only is not and will not be evil... it's actually a force of good, not just another corporation with splendid PR.
 

asdf634

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[citation][nom]steelbox[/nom]1 Billion for Google is not probably much. OK china may have 1.2 billion, but only a fraction of its population have Internet access.[/citation]

Although this may be true; even a fraction is a huge amount considering the entire population...

The bottom line is, censorship sucks, but for google loosing that amount of money would suck even more.
 

SAL-e

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[citation][nom]Godhatesusall[/nom]Google won't do it.....Seriously,does anyone here believe that a huge multi-national corporation will just throw away 1 bn $ just because they "care about censorship"?[/citation]
Well, Google went public about it. If GMail accounts are targeted you can believe that other providers like Hotmail, Yahoo and others were targeted also. Only Google is talking. I do not care what policy corporation has I care how the corporation acts.
[citation][nom]Godhatesusall[/nom]Corporations are corporations, and by definition are greedy.It is people who must force corporations to act differently, but i didnt notice any serious movement to force google to stand against china's censorship policies.[/citation]
Corporations don't have personalities. Corporations only project the personality of the people working for it. If people inside corporation are greedy the corporation will appear greedy also. Yes, I agree that we can and should keep corporations responsible, but not only as customers, but more important to stand up for our values as an employee.
What is really troubling is that lately too many "Americans" are and willing to "compromise" their values when the price is their pay check.
 

asdf634

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[citation][nom]SAL-e[/nom]What is really troubling is that lately too many "Americans" are and willing to "compromise" their values when the price is their pay check.[/citation]

Let's not be too stereotypical... it's the human nature in the modern society really. When there is only one last meal on earth for you and another, few would share, even fewer would give, but most would just take the whole damn thing. It's sad to see the world come to this really.

Now if everyone in the world is kind enough to give me a cent...
 

back_by_demand

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[citation][nom]bhaberle[/nom]I assure you it is just a hollow threat. The last line says it all. "Google.cn generates roughly $1 billion for Google." Why would they leave if they generate so much money from it?[/citation]
It's not the money. If Google beleives that it's service is being hacked into by the State, ie, PRC Government Hackers, then that does not bode well for running an information business.
 

SAL-e

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[citation][nom]asdf634[/nom]Let's not be too stereotypical... it's the human nature in the modern society really. When there is only one last meal on earth for you and another, few would share, even fewer would give, but most would just take the whole damn thing. It's sad to see the world come to this really.Now if everyone in the world is kind enough to give me a cent...[/citation]
No. I am not stereotypical... I have faced with the choice to compromise in the past and I maid my choice.
The last meal on earth or any meal is scarce resource and as result it could be own as private property. The owner of the property should have the freedom to decide to share it or not.
The values are not property and should not be traded. What I believe in and value don't effect your believes and values.

And yes, I am not giving you my cent... you need to earn it from me. ;)
 

brisingamen

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googles owners are some of the most radical unique buisinessmen of our era and i wouldnt put anything past them, . . . they literally have a vision for the world.
 

doc70

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Google went along with these censorship practices for years now without a peep and all of a sudden they grew balls?... I don't believe that for a second, there must be another reason for this. Will find out later when all blows wide open.
 

asdf634

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[citation][nom]SAL-e[/nom]No. I am not stereotypical... I have faced with the choice to compromise in the past and I maid my choice.The last meal on earth or any meal is scarce resource and as result it could be own as private property. The owner of the property should have the freedom to decide to share it or not.The values are not property and should not be traded. What I believe in and value don't effect your believes and values.And yes, I am not giving you my cent... you need to earn it from me.[/citation]

You're missing the point. What I was trying to express is that it's not just the Americans, it's the human nature to look after themselves before they look out for others, and in your argument you've proven my point. Why should the last meal on earth belong to you and to your decision but not the others?

I'm not an American and I'm not defending for Americans... all I was saying is that it's really sad to see the world became what it is now.

Now give me that damn cent!!
 

Raishi

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[citation][nom]doc70[/nom]Google went along with these censorship practices for years now without a peep and all of a sudden they grew balls?... I don't believe that for a second, there must be another reason for this. Will find out later when all blows wide open.[/citation]

"Went along without a peep"? Haven't been paying much attention, have you? They've been outspoken opponents of China's censorship practices for years.
 

invlem

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There's a difference between abiding by the chinese governments censorship regulations and having your customers accounts being hacked into by them.

The hacking exposes serious security risks for google, gmail is gmail regardless of which country its subscribers are based.

If they start hacking chinese gmail accounts whats stopping them from hacking into non-chinese gmail accounts. In this respect I can totally understand Google's stance and quite frankly the security of the rest of their gmail accounts worldwide might be worth a billion dollars to them.
 

asdf634

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[citation][nom]invlem[/nom]There's a difference between abiding by the chinese governments censorship regulations and having your customers accounts being hacked into by them. The hacking exposes serious security risks for google, gmail is gmail regardless of which country its subscribers are based. If they start hacking chinese gmail accounts whats stopping them from hacking into non-chinese gmail accounts. In this respect I can totally understand Google's stance and quite frankly the security of the rest of their gmail accounts worldwide might be worth a billion dollars to them.[/citation]

It may be the Chinese government's scheme to drive google out of the country... there's no stopping for the almighty google god to fetch some porn and articles discrediting the Chinese government... and obviously they won't like that.
 
Google started doing business in China knowing full well of how they operate and the Chinese government's stance on censorship, privacy, and surveillance so why all this controversy and the lame-ass threat from Google to pull operations out of China makes absolutely no sense to me. What did Google expect to happen?

China survived quite well without Google and doubt it would even be a blip on the Chinese people's radar if Google were to leave. Heck, I imagine since Google has opened operations in China that there have been countless cheaply made knock-offs that will easily fill the gap if/when Google is gone.

The only one who will lose if Google leaves China is Google.
 

twu

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It's time to buy more BAIDU stocks. One less competitor to compete in the search engine market in Asia. It will be a really bad move for Google and I don't think Google will pull out and let BAIDU to dominate the asia market.
If I remember correctly, Google said that if you at don't do anything wrong from the beginning, why do you/people afraid others to invade your privacy... Sorry, English is my third language.
lol :)

 
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