In the US and most of the West, there is an equally disturbing form of censorship that no one seems to talk about ... it's called political correctness and self censorship. You say we can call the President a porchmonkey. But in truth, your ability or willingness to do so really depends on who the President is. Look at recent history to observe this point.

Google was already thinking to leave in September. From Forbes last month. http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/21/google-baidu-internet-intelligent-technology-fannin.html

I thought the saying went "lie with hippies, you get fleas".

People in glass houses really shouldn't throw Temple of Doom sized boulders. China doesn't take natural resources by force. They do it by building roads, schools, hospitals, etc in return for the opportunity to purchase (key point here for all ye colonizers) said resources.

I think Google really shot themselves in the foot with all this "don't be evil" crap. It's the classic case of over-promise, under-deliver. Honestly how much good did they get from being "good" vs evil.

Agree completely this is a PR move. Big part of their value is the Google brand. And hating on China seems to be quite popular among some circles. Also agree with the last statement ... China has and will continue to adopt our ideals/values because of our engagement through business, academia, culture, etc. Obviously people who hate China won't agree with this, since that means comming into contact with those people.

Google says themselves their Chinese operations are "immaterial". They have bigger fish (or should i say iFish) to fry. Also they've gotten some bad press recently. That little spat with France. Even managed to piss off Phillip K. Dick's estate. Making this little announcement gives them some credibility back with 1) people who actually believe companies like Google give a flying web search about "human rights" and 2) people who simply hate China with their hateful little hearts. If they really had cajones, they would cease any and all forms of business with China (including indirect business). That would be suicidal and most likely grossly unfair to China no matter what sorts of issues aforementioned 2 groups of people claim China has.

"until they play by the same rules as the rest of the civilized world" It's easy to play by the rules when you're the one making them and breaking them. You must be blissfully ignorant or lacking serious grey matter if you think the "civilized world" plays by it's own rules. Just admit we are getting beat at the current game, find a way to screw the other side and carry on. It's worked time and time again.

That's the whole point ... get real. The vast majority of Chinese products are high quality and safe. It's good the media points out these specific cases to the public. Whether they are driven by altruism is doubtful. Stories like this are sensationalistic. It also feeds into the stereotype I mentioned. Japan was derided at first, then feared and now they are our most bestest, most cooliest friends in Asia (and aren't they just wonderful for containing China?).

When you consider the astronomical amount of products we import from China, cases like this are the rare exception ... not the norm. Problem is the media keeps digging these cases up and shining flood lights on them to reinforce the stereotype that products from China are poor quality and dangerous. Try to replace China with any country/countries and watch the prices/danger levels shoot up and quality fall. The only positive side of these stories is the public is informed of which specific products should be avoided. Problem is .. they do this only for Chinese products (and no it's not because only Chinese products have issues).