China vs Google
Is the threat from Google to pull out of China the first step in trying to bring that country into a Western world view? China today can be looked on as a sort of Victorian society - a right wing bureaucracy/meritocracy that is desparately trying to hold power back from the people and maintain the status quo. But the people see wealth in their reach and want to grab it, so they are moving rapidly to the heart of wealth and the benefits it can bring - to the cities and manufacturing heartlands. Can China turn into a modern Britain, or a modern United States, or will it deepen into a tyrannical dictatorship? The answer is what they do with their increased power. Victorian Britain turned slowly into a modern social/liberal democratic bureaucracy in the European mould, valuing peace. The US is still a raw, spoilt teenager prepared to use its vast wealth and energies to get it's own way - but there are just the beginnings of signs of possible social/liberal maturity on a pseudo European model and an understanding of the value of peace. Unlike Britain and the US, China has been damaged by past humiliation and conquests and revenge lingers; google's brash pulling of the Chinese tail could exacerbate this. What China needs above all is true respect in a way that leads it to a peaceful, liberal maturity that gradually quenches its hurt and need to hit out. It's not easy but it can be done.
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