Does Google have assets in China that could be seized or employees that could be arrested? If so, you can hardly blame them for not being rebels. They may be giants on the web, but that won't help them if the cops are throwing their people in cages.

Google's only choice is to play by Chinese rules or leave China entirely. If they stay, the Chinese people can't see censored content, but if they leave, the Chinese people cant see any content at all, and most of the content of the web is not stuff that would be censored because it's not political.

I posted about this back in June with respect to Microsoft:

http://www.windypundit.com/archives/2005/06/microsoft_china.html

In that article, I looked at the top 10 recent blog updates on Blogger and Typepad. None of them were about the major political controversies of the day.

As Kerry Howley explains: "The Chinese, just like the rest of us, want the web for its gossip, games, and, not least, porn. At least four million Chinese maintain blogs, 55,000 of them on MSN spaces. There is more to be passionate about, apparently, than politics."

First we wrote M$ and now G$$gle

If they abide with local laws ,imagine what can happen with your Google data.