That's what is scaring the Chinese leadership, that the people might turn on them and push them out and seek justice.

1 young woman stabbed 2 officials who tried to rape her. http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article11.php?id=1104

Another example:
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20061109_1.htm

"This article revealed that a former Fuxin city mayor, city party secretary and People's Congress director over fifteen years by the name of Wang Yachen stole the fortune worth more than 100 million RMB from the private entrepreneur Gao Wenhua. Furthermore, he used his daughter Wang Xiaoyun (who was deputy director of the Fuxin city public security bureau) and his son Wang Xiaogang (who was the deputy squadron leader of the Fuxin city security police squadron) to send the asset-owner into prison for eleven months."

Another story where and young man was executed after he killed 6 police officers, the police put his mother in a mental institution for 4 months during his trial. The officials also removed his lawyer and appointed a state paid lawyer:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/11/26/china-yang-jia-is-dead/

"According to Yang's testimony, he was wrongly accused by the Shanghai police for stealing bicycle in 2007 and suffered from physical abuse during the detention. However, in a close door trial in August, Yang was sentenced to death without a reasonable explanation of his intention in the verdict [zh]. Many considered the trial unfair as the lawyer that Yang's father hired were denied and the government appointed another lawyer, a legal consultant for Zhabei district government [zh], to represent Yang. More scandalous is the fact that Yang's mother, Wang Jingmei, had been kept in a psychiatric hospital [zh] run by the Beijing Police Bureau for about four months, throughout the prosecution of her son. (English briefing see Yang Jia: Stranger than Fiction)"

There are loads of these stories of the people killing the authorities in China over the past couple of years. It could only take 1 serious event to cause a serious uprising.

If Google is pulling out then this is a sign that the Chinese are going into another cycle of walling themselves further off from the rest of the world ... for a few years.

Why?

Well the number of Chinese now who are better off financially has increased dramatically in the last 5 to 10 years.

They want their freedom, and they want to live just like the rest of us.

They want change, and they want to question how and why their country is run the way it is.

I really feel for the Chinese as their totalitarian government is clearly very scared of its own people.

Enough to close the doors again ... and cull those of its own who question the way things are.

Then they will open the doors again in a few ears ... with newfriendly faces on their side ... who ask few questions.

Is china building a cyber great wall ?
I was reading some great info about China's great wall and I could not help but see similarity on how China wants to build a cyber great wall,
to censor the rest of the world and only allow what it wants through its interenets... anyway, if you find the great wall fascinating here is the article I was reading earlier
link.
a href="http://ketiva.com/Education_and_Reference/unusual_legend_of_great_wall_of_china.html" http://ketiva.com/Education_and_Reference/unusual_legend_of_great_wall_of_china.html /a

For those interested in an insiders view of "China", its politics and how it "deals" with people, governments and more or less everybody, try http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Governor-Chris-Patten-Handover/dp/0751522724/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263418008&sr=8-1

It may open your mind

Dweeb

If reality is the issue, why doesn't Apple move into China to fill the gap?

Apple is quite adept at brainwashing its customers, so I would think that this could be a great opportunity to spread its wings and expand its reality distortion field to a larger audience. A natural fit.

It is really not surprising that Google finds its business model incompatible with that of the Chinese Government.

After all, Google is all about helping people discover "reality"; how to freely search and discover information about our world (and other worlds as well).

China's government, on the other hand, is all about unreality; how to restrict information to generate some government-approved vision of how "good citizens" are supposed to think and behave.

Sure, some other search provider (like Microsoft) could try and step in, but the resulting bad advertising for them (as opposed to the good PR Google is generating by flipping the finger at China's brainwashing policies) will probably only hurt them (and help Google) in the long run.

Except someone forgot to give a golden handshake to the right person in charge.

It might also spell out some of the western ignorance, and arrogance, when it comes to dealing with the Chinese.

Play their games, or take your toys and leave the playground.

I wish I could credit whoever said this, but I can't remember where it came from. But here it is, "People here think no-one can do without China, and I think now some companies are thinking no-one can deal with China,"

From the few people that I know who have had to deal with China on a business level would agree. There is a lot of opportunities in China, but dealing with the BS might outweigh the profits. This just might be the beginning.

Google enabled HTTPS / SSL as default for webmail last night.

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/default-https-access-for-gmail.html

Could we have an artice on exactly how GCHQ systems etc will monitor Gmail e-mails for terrorist activities etc. How much extra it will cost governments etc..

Its a shame pulling out of China only really effects google in the long run. I mean theres the initial bad PR china will receive, but thats nothing new to china when it comes to human rights!

The gap in the search market will quickly be followed by another competitor and tax revenues will follow.

How do you tackle such a powerful country like china without completely cutting your own throat?