The ideological battle between Google and the People’s Republic of China

Two weeks ago, Google publicly opposed the Chinese government by declaring that it would no longer censor its online services in China. It made this announcement shortly after a cyber-attack targeted the Google email accounts of Chinese dissidents, an attack which reports suggest may have originated from the Chinese government. Google went so far as to threaten to leave China if the government does not relax its internet censorship laws, sparking an angry response.

This latest crisis in Sino-Google relations has taken on international significance beyond just the opening of another front in the ongoing trade disputes between China and the United States, and it represents more than just the latest development in the long-lasting ideological clash between the Chinese government and western internet service providers Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. And while this isn’t the first time an American corporation has sought to impose its will on a foreign government, this may be the first such standoff that has an ideological or public international law dimension to it. Among other things, it prompted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to declare last week that the United States intends to advance “internet freedom” at the United Nations.

One interesting question that comes out of this is whether corporations of Google’s stature will be able to shape the policies of state actors in much the same manner as they can those…

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