> I improves the situation by letting china know that some American companies, at least, won't silently roll over and let the Chinese gov trample on any rights they want
Devil's advocate: how is that a material improvement besides making some people feel good? China wins (homegrown brands like Baidu), Google loses a market, Chinese Google users lose a search engine.
Taking a stand is useful. Before this happened, the whole world thought everything was "kind of ok" in China, and then Google just left, hinting at how the system was not well, the Chinese leadership lost serious face in the incident, rightfully so. And in China, face is almost everything.
But the fact is China or Chinese Government didn't lose anything. Meanwhile, after that they didn't stop blocking/censoring foreign websites. Meanwhile, there are lots of rumors Google want to return back to Chinese market by different ways.
The Chinese government DID lose a lot in that incident, basically a lot of the goodwill they built up during the olympics, a good image in the west that basically disappeared over night. "Western Media Bias" wasn't really a thing between 2007 and 2010-11.
China can block all the websites they want, the damage they do to their local internet industry is probably irreversible: they are unable to compete in even next door markets like Myanmar and Cambodia! On the one hand, they block the big western internet companies out of china, on the other hand, they give up the rest of the world. From the west's perspective, it is a reasonable tradeoff.
Google IS mobile, even in China, Android is a big thing. I heard they want back in mobile; e.g. Android Play Store, they don't care about search in China, it isn't where the future is for that market anyways.
> China can block all the websites they want, the damage they do to their local internet industry is probably irreversible
I'll need you to explain that to me slowly, because I can't wrap my head around your reasoning. Blocking foreign websites is the best thing China did for its internet industry: Blocking Twitter helps Weibo, Google exiting helped Baidu, and so on. Not having to compete with western companies on home turf can hardly be called "damage".
> From the west's perspective, it is a reasonable tradeoff.
A lot of western companies have effectively saturated the market in the west, the only room left to grow is in China, and so they pander.
They don't know how to compete with foreigners = they don't know how to compete outside of China - it is quite simple.
> A lot of western companies have effectively saturated the market in the west, the only room left to grow is in China, and so they pander.
That isn't true! They are eating the rest of Asia as we speak. Myanmar just opened up, and already Google/Facebook dominate its market. Not a WeChat to be seen. They are completely winning the east that isn't China. The same will happen in Africa when it gets to that point. Chinese Internet companies simply cannot compete outside of their home market without competitive pressure.
China is only 1.3 billion people out of a world of 7 billion. That China currently says our 1.3 billion are off limits is fine as they basically forgo 5.7.
Devil's advocate: how is that a material improvement besides making some people feel good? China wins (homegrown brands like Baidu), Google loses a market, Chinese Google users lose a search engine.