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Comment by DasIch | Hacker News Reader

It would be a huge mistake to cut of China from the internet. Whatever power the US wields militarily as well as economically is an absolute joke compared to the power it wields culturally. American culture through movies, tv and music dominates global culture, allowing it define what normal society looks like.

You want the people in China consuming more and not less of it.

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> You want the people in China consuming more and not less of it.

Want all you wish, the Chinese government is actively stopping and blocking the outside internet at an alarming rate. I was in Beijing a few weeks ago and couldn't load google, youtube, gmail, gmaps, instangram, facebook, twitter, various chatting apps, imgur, and on and on. Even using VPNs were difficult. I don't see this stopping anytime soon since it allows 1) control of the people and 2) growth from copying a western products and forcing the people inside the firewall to use the Chinese cloned version.

I spend about 6 months of the year in China. Yes, I am forced, as you say, to use the Chinese versions of everything, but, to be honest, it doesn't worry me. I use Baidu to put my teaching notes online for my students - it is as good as DropBox. Bing is allowed and works fine as a search engine, even if it blocks any results for "naughty" words. It becomes a bit of a game to see which double entendres it doesn't recognise. Conversing on English corner one night, a student asked me what I thought about their government blocking Google. I think my answer surprised him: I said, "Do you want Google to rule the world?" My implication is that I think services like Baidu are good competition for Google. I honestly think that the governments blocking of Western services is a business decision. It's highly likely sites like Bauidu pay the government a cut to continue the blockade. Imagine a world where you don't get continually served with Google ads. That's pretty close to Nirvana in my opinion.

Are you really serious? Adblocking is trivial and does not require government censorship. And how does allowing access to Google let them rule the world?

I think you miss my point. As I see it, the Chinese government are basically blocking Google as a business decision. Take a look at Baidu. You will be amazed at the number of services they offer. On the roads in China you see a lot of Audis and Mercedes. These are mostly driven by Government officials. There are many avenues for Government officials to earn money. I don't know the size of companies like Baidu and Ali Baba, but I would warrant they are many times the size of Google and Amazon. Government officials want a piece of that action. If you really think this all about freedom of speech, you seem somewhat naïve to me. It's money, money, money.

Your 2 statements has nothing to do with each other. Here take another 50 cent.

I am sorry. I have to let you connect the dots. I have a university job in China and I don't want to be kicked out of the country. Just follow the money.

The valuation of Baidu is currently around $50 billion. Compare this to Amazon which is valued at $125 billion, and Google at $375 billion. Apple is at $600 billion. So you're basically wrong.

50c well earned.

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