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If Google produced iron ore as well as providing an internet search engine, it really would have been conflicted. Even as it was, the decision to “pull out” of China (all the way to Hong Kong) was finely balanced. Google decided that its brand, which depends on its image as a champion of liberalism, was worth more than a slice of China’s still-nascent online advertising market. That judgment became easier as Beijing grew more heavy-handed in policing the internet and as Chinese hackers – with or without the authorities’ blessing – grew more adept at tunnelling into Google’s databases.

But Google has hedged its bets. For the moment, it will...