I’ve scoffed at Google’s claim that it’s motto is “don’t be evil.” I’m scoffing a bit less now:
We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
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Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Billy, you, and I, would be sitting in Chinese prison right now for some of our past political speech. I don’t like that we largely ignore the fact that China has no respect for individual human rights. To them, people live for the state. Are they becoming more like us, or are we becoming more like them?
I have to wonder if this is just posturing. If Google really did pull out of what is potentially the world’s largest market, people who value freedom would have infinitely more respect for the company than they do now. I hope and pray they will decide to come down on the side of light instead of darkness.