Whatever...

Running Dogs

Though Google has not specifically blamed this on the government, it's press release does make it implicit that the attack was sanctioned by the Chinese government. Equally implicit is that google has evidence of the Chinese government's involvement. I am sure we will soon see the IP log's showing the attack coming from Chinese government computers.

I read the following headline: It's not Google that's withdrawing from China but China withdrawing from the world.
I think that's a well-taken observation. And what's more, it appears that the Chinese gov't is doing what its predecessor did several centuries ago. Shut itself off from the outside world--except Canton. And then what happened? The internet (or its porn and accounts about the three taboo T's) is like the opium--too "debilitating" for the CCP's slaves. ... Sat sapienti.

Wouldn't the hackers have been able to attack Google websites, even if they weren't "in" China? I gather the the emails of dissidents were hacked, wouldn't this have been a problem even if they were using a google.com email system.

I'm having trouble with what "withdrawing" a virtual service from a political country means. Would there still be service in Chinese but just not for .cn sites or sessions?

If google.cn gets shut down it'll likely follow it'll be a case of et tu google.com.

Man, it's about time somone did this, and I am proud of Google for doing so. VW, Microsoft, Yahoo and all the others completely lose track of their morals when they consider the large upside to doing business in China. "Financial Giants and Moral Pygmies" Good on Google. As a foreigner working for a foreign company in a field where local companies bribe, cheat and corruption is rife, the only way to change the game here is to stick to your guns. Inside on a "right way" and hope someone learns from you....I am glad that Google has decided which camp it is in.....

@John Edelson - The hacking could not have been done on US based servers. It has to do with the routers physically located in China.

Google's possible exit will create a very interesting on-line landscape, China will in essence become the largest Local Area Network in the world. Since I am bilingual and I can surf the Chinese LAN as easily as I surf the real NET, I do understand why most Chinese internet users can live without google. Think about it, for every great internet invention of the west the Chinese came up with an equivalent (sort of). There is google's Chinese twin bro Baidu, ebay and taobao, youtube and youku... the list goes on and on. So I mean if you are in for the fun you could be satisfied with the LAN. And for the more adventurous and true internationalists there are always ways of getting around the great wall. (Using your mobile phone perhaps...)

@Nicholas:

Right on the money. The gov't continues to try to put the squeeze on harder -- banning more and more, trying to control more and more of the internet -- while the technological tide has already arrived.

Their continual harassment and harping will drive true innovators away and they can be left even further behind in the dust.

Let the Chinese return to their cocoon. They can't seem to handle truly interacting with any other culture anyway; I think they are truly freaked out by anything that isn't Chinese.