BBC NEWS | Technology | Web users urged on China policy
There is nothing that I find more abhorrent in the prevailing ethical standards of corporate American than their compliance with internet and media censors around the world. They seem to have no understanding of how valuable their services are to the people of the world, who if denied access to these services would without question demand a change in government policy. Suppose Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others were to all say that is it, we are closing shop until we are allowed to do our job, which is proliferating the world's information to every human being on the planet. This is a force of globalization and technological modernization that no government should be permitted to resist. How would the Chinese government explain why the companies closed? How long would it take for the instinctively curious and ambitious Chinese populous to demand the government reinstate the companies free of censorship? I suspect the Communists are unwilling to risk their government over censorship of a world they can no longer deprive their citizens from exploring. It is the people's decision whether or not they choose to embrace western values and liberal political ideas, the party should fundamentally understand that they must concede this soon before they are subverted by a sudden embarrassment like the one I just articulated and lose their legitimacy. It has happened to every Chinese government in the last 1000 years, and if the historic success rate of Communism is any indication this long streak of total collapse is bound to continue.
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