A China, a Internet, e a Google

Nota: Clicar na imagem para aceder a uma versão maior. 

Embora, se discuta muito o que poderá estar a justificar, em última instância, a atitude da Google, o certo é que sabe bem saber que alguém é capaz de fazê-lo. A imagem foi tirada da Information Is Beautiful, e aquilo que se transcreve em seguida, tem sentido.

What Does China Censor Online? | Information Is Beautiful

Five Economics Pieces Worth Reading: January 14, 2010 - Grasping Reality with Opposable Thumbs:

"3) BEST NON-ECONOMICS THING I HAVE READ TODAY: James Fallows: The Google news: China enters its Bush-Cheney era: In terms of information flow into China, this decision probably makes no real difference.... Anybody inside China who really wants to get to Google... can still do so easily, by using a proxy server.... For the vast majority of Chinese users, it's not worth going to that cost or bother, since so much material is still available in Chinese from authorized sites.... In terms of the next stage of China's emergence as a power and dealings with the United States, this event has the potential to make a great deal of difference -- in a negative way, for China. I think of this as the beginning of China's Bush-Cheney era.

To put it in perspective: I have long argued that China's relations with the U.S. are overall positive for both sides... that China is a still-poor, highly-diverse and individualistic country whose development need not 'threaten' anyone else and should be encouraged. I still believe all of that. But... a difficult and unpleasant stage of China-U.S. and China-world relations lies ahead. This is so on the economic front.... It may prove to be so on the environmental front -- that is what the argument over China's role in Copenhagen is about. 

It is increasingly so on the political-liberties front, as witness Vaclav Havel's denunciation of the recent 11-year prison sentence for the man who is in many ways his Chinese counterpart, Liu Xiaobo. And if... Google has... concluded that, in effect, it must break diplomatic relations with China because its policies are too repressive and intrusive to make peace with, that is a significant judgment. Everything in the paragraph above has the similarity of being based directly or indirectly on recent Chinese government decisions..."