Google Returns to China

The WSJ reports that Google is returning to China after its confrontation with the Chinese over Chinese censorship and alleged Chinese hacks into its computer systems led it to shut down its Chinese site, Google.cn, and direct visitors to its Hong Kong site, Google.com.hk.  The firm never left China altogether: “While Google, which opened its first China office in 2005, shut down many functions there following its decision to stop censoring search results, it says it never abandoned the country.  It still has more than 500 employees there, including more than 300 engineers.”  But it is now ramping up its presence even though, as the story reports, China-based hackers are still targeting Google and China is still censoring.  The market opportunities are just too great, and Google aims “to capitalize on its fast-growing Android operating system for mobile devices, online-advertising and product-search services.” Google’s decision raises at least two questions.  First, is it better for Chinese freedom if Google is there or if it is not there?  I believe it is better if it is there, because Google has the potential to circulate information and ideas more robustly than its Chinese substitutes. Second, an old topic: What signal is the United States sending to China in response to rampant Chinese economic cyber-espionage?  There is no public evidence that the USG is doing anything about it besides issuing reports and giving speeches denouncing it.  Hopefully it is doing more in secret.  But what else might it be doing?  All but small-scale attacks in response to such espionage (assuming that is a realistic possibility) would not be lawful under international law.  So that leaves other forms of sanction, including economic sanctions.  The signal that Google’s re-engagment with China sends is that because of China’s market power, economic sanctions (private or public) are an unlikely response to its cyber-exploitations.