Google getting out of China?
Curious statements from Google today.... basically, they were hacked in mid-December 2009, and are now seriously reconsidering whatever deal they have with China.
Very Lando-Calrissian-Darth-Vader-in-Empire... ish.
"Darth Vader: Calrissian. Take the princess and the Wookie to my ship."
"Lando: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision."
"Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
Or maybe I'm just a big nerd. I am seriously going to work on that.
Hmmm. I was in China in mid-December. I also used Gmail while I was there (still do). Coincidence???? DUM DUM DUM. Yeah I dunno.
When I was there, I tried logging into Hotmail a couple times but it came up as a mess of html. I don't know why. Gmail was fine, of course.
I like to get righteously-indignant about how Google is helping a gov't. supress people's liberties, but honestly, it is not that cut & dried, is it? If you want the access to a major market, you have to play by the rules of the game. The entire world has learned this over the last 20 or so years. We westerners like to think that China needs us, and we need them. I always hear about how Canada sends these trade groups led by some politician or whoever to China to "encourage trade".... sheyeah, it's *NOT* about getting a free vacation on the taxpayer's dime AT ALL..... but seriously, the prevailing view is that China and the rest of the world is part of a symbiotic relationship.
But when I was in China, I gained a very different perspective. China is enormous, there are so many people that it feels very self-sustaining. The culture is so different in many ways from ours that I felt very insulated from the rest of the world. I saw many big factories and I know that they produce stuff that gets shipped out to the west; the sweaters I haggled over in a back alleyway for 18 RMB ($3.00 CAD) get shipped to Walmarts & marked up to $20.00, or other stores for even more. I'm sure there is a very symbiotic relationship with the economies of the west. But you do not feel it in the day-to-day living.
I do think we seriously overestimate how much China needs us. Or at least how much we could influence China. I think that Google is just trying to show its teeth because it doesn't really have any bite. I'd be surprised if they did pull out of China.
On the way to Fuzhou I was talking to some (really cute) university girls on a train, and they'd never heard of Google, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Twitter, etc. All those bloody annoying sites that get mentioned in the mainstream news EVERY EFFIN' WEEK.... seriously, I bet you hear either Twitter, YouTube or Facebook mentioned in the news at least once a week. But that doesn't mean they don't social network, on the contrary-- it's just that the sites they do it on aren't recognizable (to me) other than MSN messenger, I think I've heard of that one. And because China is such a huge market, the popular sites are probably big $$$$ generators. It's no wonder Google is/was willing to throw away personal liberties like a crazy traveler dropping their bags in a scramble to catch a train pulling out of the station.
Yeah, I'd be surprised if Google was actually serious about getting out of China. I think what they're really trying to do is pull on the chain around their neck a bit, to get a little more slack. Though I have to admit the description of these hacking attacks is kind of disturbing. It does make me wonder, could someone have accessed my gmail? Anything's possible I guess. I deliberately avoided political discussion in any email or conversation while I was there. Except one time in Hong Kong, when I asked someone a really stupid question about what's changed since the handover-- my question was meant in the context of day-to-day life rather than politics, and I should have phrased it more clearly. The reply I got back was a robotic monotone, "Nothing. Has. Changed. Nothing. At. All. If. Anything. Things. Have. Only. Gotten. Better."
*then awkward silence in the car*
And he said quietly, "They leave you alone if you don't talk about politics."
This is why I am so bad at small talk. After a few hours I'm hitting wrong nerves like that because I'm too dumb to be nuanced. I start saying stupid stuff.
later
don
Very Lando-Calrissian-Darth-Vader-in-Empire... ish.
"Darth Vader: Calrissian. Take the princess and the Wookie to my ship."
"Lando: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision."
"Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
Or maybe I'm just a big nerd. I am seriously going to work on that.
Hmmm. I was in China in mid-December. I also used Gmail while I was there (still do). Coincidence???? DUM DUM DUM. Yeah I dunno.
When I was there, I tried logging into Hotmail a couple times but it came up as a mess of html. I don't know why. Gmail was fine, of course.
I like to get righteously-indignant about how Google is helping a gov't. supress people's liberties, but honestly, it is not that cut & dried, is it? If you want the access to a major market, you have to play by the rules of the game. The entire world has learned this over the last 20 or so years. We westerners like to think that China needs us, and we need them. I always hear about how Canada sends these trade groups led by some politician or whoever to China to "encourage trade".... sheyeah, it's *NOT* about getting a free vacation on the taxpayer's dime AT ALL..... but seriously, the prevailing view is that China and the rest of the world is part of a symbiotic relationship.
But when I was in China, I gained a very different perspective. China is enormous, there are so many people that it feels very self-sustaining. The culture is so different in many ways from ours that I felt very insulated from the rest of the world. I saw many big factories and I know that they produce stuff that gets shipped out to the west; the sweaters I haggled over in a back alleyway for 18 RMB ($3.00 CAD) get shipped to Walmarts & marked up to $20.00, or other stores for even more. I'm sure there is a very symbiotic relationship with the economies of the west. But you do not feel it in the day-to-day living.
I do think we seriously overestimate how much China needs us. Or at least how much we could influence China. I think that Google is just trying to show its teeth because it doesn't really have any bite. I'd be surprised if they did pull out of China.
On the way to Fuzhou I was talking to some (really cute) university girls on a train, and they'd never heard of Google, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Twitter, etc. All those bloody annoying sites that get mentioned in the mainstream news EVERY EFFIN' WEEK.... seriously, I bet you hear either Twitter, YouTube or Facebook mentioned in the news at least once a week. But that doesn't mean they don't social network, on the contrary-- it's just that the sites they do it on aren't recognizable (to me) other than MSN messenger, I think I've heard of that one. And because China is such a huge market, the popular sites are probably big $$$$ generators. It's no wonder Google is/was willing to throw away personal liberties like a crazy traveler dropping their bags in a scramble to catch a train pulling out of the station.
Yeah, I'd be surprised if Google was actually serious about getting out of China. I think what they're really trying to do is pull on the chain around their neck a bit, to get a little more slack. Though I have to admit the description of these hacking attacks is kind of disturbing. It does make me wonder, could someone have accessed my gmail? Anything's possible I guess. I deliberately avoided political discussion in any email or conversation while I was there. Except one time in Hong Kong, when I asked someone a really stupid question about what's changed since the handover-- my question was meant in the context of day-to-day life rather than politics, and I should have phrased it more clearly. The reply I got back was a robotic monotone, "Nothing. Has. Changed. Nothing. At. All. If. Anything. Things. Have. Only. Gotten. Better."
*then awkward silence in the car*
And he said quietly, "They leave you alone if you don't talk about politics."
This is why I am so bad at small talk. After a few hours I'm hitting wrong nerves like that because I'm too dumb to be nuanced. I start saying stupid stuff.
later
don