Is Google going crazy?

Google has publicly threatened to un-censor search content on their China website.  They've insinuated, as delicately as possible, that the Chinese government bears some responsibility for the attacks on the email accounts of human rights activists around the world as well as stealing intellectual property (stealing software code) from at least a dozen companies.

The part of their statement that most clearly points to their suspicions is the wording in Google's descriptions of the attacks, which were described as "highly sophisticated." This of course indicates that they believe the attacks to have been carefully and meticulously organized by some organization capable of pulling off such a major operation.  Moreover, they were set out to achieve political goals. Whether or not this is state sponsored is a matter that may never be proved, but I believe it is reasonable to assume that even if not officially condoned, such activity is not discouraged.

There are two sides to China's sensitivity over the internet.  One of them is political and the other is economic.

First, the political.  The political reasons for China blocking website access and seeking to control content have been written about all over the place.  Clearly, the government is sensitive about activities it sees as being directly threatening its legitimacy or advocating independence. Personally, while I detest the manner in which these worries affect me personally, I can understand why a conservative government such as China's would be so paranoid about the influence of foreign ideals.  I have a lot of skepticism about Western concerns over Tibet and Xinjiang, which are mostly based on a lot of moral platitudes that do very little provide real solutions (would another poor, disorganized, violent, Islamic central Asian state really be that much better off?).  The same questions apply to Western platitudes about human rights, which we use as a political tool to pressure countries when we see fit. In any case, that's another discussion. In summary, China's government has political reasons for trying to control the internet.

But what is far less talked about but also very interesting is the possible economic reasons for such control. China wants to become a high-tech international economic powerhouse. As part of its progress towards becoming a modernized country, it wants to produce companies that can compete with Google and Apple, etc. However, at present, China cannot compete. China's computing industry is still far behind that of the West, and full of basically copycat software and hardware (look at the post on Perspectives on shanzhai 山寨 products from last year). So, the Great Firewall of China acts as a buffer for the Chinese high-tech industry. With Facebook blocked, Renrenwang 人人网 (formerly Xiaonei 校内) and other Chinese social networking sites can have time and a customer base to develop.  With Youtube blocked, similar Chinese sites have had the opportunity to secure a user base. Whether or not this is a sound principle (history tends to show that China's most developed sectors have been the those that are the most open to foreign competition), China is certainly no stranger to such protectionism.

The other side of China's internet policy, the "sophisticated" attacks on Western industry, also has important implications (whether government supported or not).  While the breaking into people's email accounts receives a great deal of attention (as it should), somewhat less acknowledged is the thievery of source code from Western companies. In my mind, this is also a glaring example of industrial espionage intended to give the Chinese high-tech industry a leg up. As with the thievery of car designs by Chinese car companies, weapon design by the Chinese military (stolen from Russia), and clothing design from designer labels, the theft of software is yet another manifestation of the same principle.  I'm not a huge fan of intellectual property rights across the board, but I'm even less of a fan of blind economic nationalism.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I do not have any evidence to prove that China's Firewall (which is hardly even officially acknowledged anyway) is being set up intentionally as a way to help the Chinese high-tech industry.  However, this would accord with other past and current Chinese industrial policies, which have sought to prevent or limit foreign competition in certain crucial industries.  Western countries also have these policies, which prevent foreign companies from acquiring US oil companies, weapons companies, etc. But nothing of the sort exists for the internet-technology industry.

Personally, I am willing to assume that there are economic interests at work here; the high-tech industry is something that has received a lot of government support recently; there are already non-internet-related policies that limit competition in the industry; the pretense of politically-sensitive content provides a legitimate reason (legitimate in the eyes of China's government) to provide cover for China's homegrown, more-easily-controlled industry.

I don't know what will happen with Google in China, but what I fear is that Google leaving might be exactly what China wants.