 |
|
 |
Large Medium Small |
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do." This is the convention for proper behavior for companies conducting business in a foreign country. Compliance with the country’s laws and regulations is standard practice for international businesses.
Despite the colonial era when a foreign company such as the British East India Company could assume an overriding power over a sovereign state, in modern times an individual foreign company never gains the upper hand when it’s in trouble with a country’s laws.
Any attempt to challenge the sovereignty of a country is doomed to fail. The cyberattack controversy surrounding Google and the fallout are increasingly challenging our common sense and knowledge of the world.
Four years ago, the search engine leader came to China and accepted its legal norms, which regulate the Internet as necessary protection of the interests of the largest group of netizens in the world.
Google grew in the Chinese market as many used its search engine.
Four years later, it suddenly announced it no longer wants to follow the rules it had no trouble following earlier. With the United States throwing its weight behind it under the pretext of Internet freedom, Google thinks it may have a chance to press the Chinese government into allowing its search engine no restriction at all.
Business is business, but when it becomes politicized, business will come to an end.
The more Google politicizes the issue, the less room it leaves for itself for further negotiations.
Netizens in China, who are known for their inclination for novelties, will simply move on to other search engines if Google pulls out of a large and growing market. The US company will be the biggest loser in all of this.
