Google vs China

It appears that Google has been experiencing some highly sophisticated hack attacks from China and is now saying that it will no longer submit to Chinese censors.

Google are also saying that if it is not able to provide unfiltered access to it's search results, then it will cease operations and pull out.

Given how lucrative the Chinese market is, will Google pull out, reverse its stance or is it just blustering to try and make a point?

How important is it to China or Google to maintain the status quo?

I think Google can and will pull out. I do not think China generates a significant portion of their profit and China has been a royal pain in the butt from day 1.

How important is Google to China? I have no clue and we'll see what happens if they pull out. I doubt the Chinese government will worry about it, at least at first.

If google pulls out it probably mainly just gives a big boost to the already successful baidu search engine.

Quote:

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Originally posted by An Gadaí

If google pulls out it probably mainly just gives a big boost to the already successful baidu search engine.

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Which interestingly was itself subjected to a hack attack recently:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchin...nt_9311628.htm

Quote:

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Originally posted by An Gadaí

If google pulls out it probably mainly just gives a big boost to the already successful baidu search engine.

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That's what I was thinking. Along the same lines, there are also a couple of online encyclopedias in China (one owned by Baidu) which are both much larger than the Chinese version of Wikipedia (which also has had problems with censorship by the PRC.)

Unlike most of the other countries that attempt to control the whole internet, China is big enough that they can make their own national equivalents to the big, U.S./international websites that most other internet users depend on. So it's tough for me to imagine this pressure really bothering the PRC government.

So, in a nutshell, what's it all about then? Who's hacking what, and whatever for? Lastly, how does it affect me?