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The announcement that the search engine will end its voluntary implementation of Chinese censorship law is not purely an assertion of principle. It is a recognition of an important commercial reality: the web is not exempt from the laws of global politics. If you want to do business with bullying states, prepare to be bullied.

Google has not said it is definitely pulling out, only that it will not continue to operate in China as a collaborator with political oppression. That pretty much amounts to an intention to withdraw. This does not mean that Google is cynically presenting commercial retreat as free-speech martyrdom. By all accounts, the company's top executives genuinely agonised over the decision in 2006 to accept Chinese censorship as a condition of market...