FT,
  
it doesn't make sense AT ALL!

Google showed us that is just another greedy company that LIES to accomplish
their financial goals. I for one will stop using Gmail and their search engine.

I do not want to be part of their corruption and betrayal.

Shame on you Google!

Google has officially responded to the controversy on their blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/google-in-china.html

Reading through the blog entry; I'm not sure they couldn't solve the technical problems of connectivity by just adding servers in the asian region and directing Chinese traffic to those regional servers. Servers don't need to be located within China to get good speeds.

If they did it this way, it would send a very strong signal to the Chinese Communist Party that Google's mission statement per se is the guiding principle.