Google CEO Eric Schmidt reaffirmed the company's China policy.

"We simply don't have a choice but to follow the law," [he] told reporters at a launch ceremony in Beijing for the US Internet giant's new Chinese name, which translates to "Gu Ge."

"We must comply with the local law, indeed we have all made a commitment to the government that we will absolutely follow the Chinese law. We don't have any alternatives."

"It is not an option for us to broadly make information available that is illegal, inappropriate or immoral or what have you."

And I stick to my agreement with Google, expressed before in TCS Daily -- partly because it is important for Google to do its bit to bring information to China, even if this bit is sometimes truncated; partly because I am willing to believe that the Chinese leaders sincerely want to develop their nation, and achieving this without a meltdown is no easy task; partly because corporations are not supposed to run their own foreign policies; and partly because I think European and American democracy may well be on a path to ochlacracy (George Gilder's great word), and should refrain from lecturing other nations.

Schmidt praised China's rulers for their Internet strategy that has seen a huge online population develop.

"We look at the rise of China, the investment and the smart people and we are in awe of what has occurred here," Schmidt said.

"And we salute the government, key leaders in the industry and all of you who have made the rise of the Internet in China such a tremendous accomplishment."

DeLong is trenchantly on target. The Chinese may well be on target. Google does best by pursuing profit.

With our incumbent protection laws, our ever expanding nomenklatura of lawyers, greens, and bureaucrats, our poll-driven agitprop, our free-speech fetishism (porn and spam enshrined along with incumbent politicians under McCain-Feingold), the United States may well be running its own democracy down into ochlocracy. Can Roberts and Alito turn the tide? Who knows? But US policies on the environment have driven most manufacturing and energy production off shore. Our economy is increasingly dependent on the Chinese, who have liberated more people economically than any other country in world history and now are leading the world in expansion of manufacturing and the construction of nuclear plants. They have tied their currency to the dollar. They have named their leading school of economics after supply sider Robert Mundell. They deserve some slack. Perhaps the pressure of their competitive example will liberate us.

George Gilder

posted by James DeLong @ 4:20 PM | International

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