Google To Restart Talks With China 118
eldavojohn writes "Following the infamous attacks allegedly carried out by the Chinese government, Google sent a strongly worded message to China. However, despite the show of plumage, Google.cn continues to operate filtered. While both parties are silent about any resolution, Google and China have planned to restart talks and negotiations over Google operating unfiltered in China. (If you have a subscription, you can read about the story from its original source, the Wall Street Journal.) The print edition of the WSJ names Google policy executive Ross LaJeunesse as their representative meeting with Chinese officials. Meanwhile, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, has officially rejected the claim that the attacks were sanctioned by the Chinese government. He said, 'Google's statement from January 12 is groundless, and we are firmly opposed to it. China administers its internet according to law, and this position will not change. China prohibits hacking and will crack down on hacking according to law.'"
Re:Show some backbone (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Show some backbone (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be nice if Google could find some third solution. I don't see it yet, but I'm not there.
1. Set up servers to be run remotely -- probably already done.
2. Configure equipment to failover to other sites in the even of outage/bombing. Probably already done.
3. Get employees out of China for a "meeting" at Google HQ.
4. Turn off filtering.
5. ???????
6. Watch the mayhem ensue. And profit.
How this plays out (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Pussies. (Score:3, Interesting)
They no doubt got a call from Washington D.C. going something like this: "WTF do you think you 'tards are doing? Don't you realize they have us by the balls? Do you have any idea how much of our debt they carry? The spare change from that could buy you clowns out twice! Have you no clue how much of the economy depends on being nice-nice with them? Now go back to kissing their backsides and spying on everyone on the nets."
According to Law??? (Score:3, Interesting)
China administers its internet according to law, and this position will not change.
Like there's anybody out there reading /. or the WSJ for that matter that is fluent in Chinese Law. This is their perfect 'get out of jail free card.' They can play the PR game all day long and hide behind whatever laws are defined. Any government would do the same thing, this isn't exclusive to the Chinese.
Re:Ask yourself, do you want to support China? (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't forget that in another 10-15 years 10% of their population won't be able to find a spouse. For what it's worth, I doubt that kind of societal pressure can be dealt with safely without great loss of life. I might be wrong, but if I certainly wouldn't want to be the one responsible for the country when 100,000,000+ young men are desperate, lonely, and sexually repressed.
Re:Ask yourself, do you want to support China? (Score:3, Interesting)
As for China's "dependency" on the US:
China's exports are 39.7% of their GDP. Of that 17.7% is to the US. [wikipedia.org] That means 7% of their money comes from exports to the US.
Can you take a 7% hit in salary and still survive? Would you want to? That's the position China's in now. But calling the USA their "life blood" is a bit of a dramatic opinion.