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Google in wrong game

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-20 07:32

Chinese netizens did not expect the Google issue to snowball into a political minefield and become a tool in the hands of vested interests abroad to attack China under the pretext of Internet freedom.

China's regulation to censor the content that Google provides to Chinese Internet users has been interpreted as a breach to freedom in the virtual world. In some extreme cases, the vested interests have described the legitimate right of the Chinese government to regulate companies and control pornographic and related content as "spying" on its own people.

The magnitude of this absurdity is beyond comprehension and the motivated attacks, intolerable.

The attacks cannot be justified even if seen from Western perspective. Many countries censor the Internet to protect the interests of innocent users. Also, it goes without saying that a foreign company should abide by the laws and regulations of the country that it is operating and making a profit in.

The Chinese are enjoying unprecedented freedom in the country's more than 5,000 years of history. All the country's newly found wealth has been created by the hands of the ordinary Chinese. The country would not have been able to perform an economic miracle if its people were unhappy with their administration and the social and political conditions.

So if the vested interests' accusation that the Chinese government censors the Internet to spy on its own people does not originate from ignorance then it is a white lie and a malicious attack.

It will not do any good to Google either. And by linking its exit from China with political issues, Google will certainly lose its credibility in a country that has the largest number of netizens.

(China Daily 03/20/2010 page5)