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Comment by rmrfrmrf | Hacker News Reader

That's nice and all, but the reality is that these multinational companies actively and willingly accept these terms (and more!) in order to exploit Chinese labor. The rhetoric about IP and censorship is all bark, no bite because the people at the top knew exactly what they signed up for.

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Companies foreign to China cooperate with the local government for another reason also: they want access to Chinese customers.

If Google were to refuse the Chinese terms of business, they would be barred from doing business with the largest population in the world. And the climate over there is that their government risks little political capital in banning non-compliant firms.

Forgoing 18% of a market in order to uphold bedrock principles seems like a worthy trade.

"You're fired" -The Board of Directors

"Fine by me" - ISL.

> these multinational companies actively and willingly accept these terms

That's why it needs to be worked on a political level, like the post you replied to stated.

It’s game theory, each company needs to stay ahead of the others and end up in a globally suboptimal state. One solution to the prisoners dilemma is “the don” who ensures nobody defects, aka the government.

aka if you defect the big boss shoots you in the head.

Yes. Whether actual bullets are involved or means like imprisonment or fines, this literally is the solution to prisonner-dillemma's like problems, and in various forms exists everywhere and forms the underpinning of a civilized society.

Right. AFAIK, China is unlike Japan, UK, or USA. To operate with similar economic structure and policies will be suicide to a country as big as China where millions of people are still farmers and villagers and way under poverty level. We have to look at competition too. It seems China wants to develop a mature marketplace, so native companies have room to compete with the outside world. Else, there wouldn't be a Baidu, Youku, or JD.

> these multinational companies actively and willingly accept these terms (and more!) in order to exploit Chinese labor

... under current international agreements and rules.

The agreements and rules change, the calculus changes. Companies optimize continuously for the current environment they find themselves in.

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