Just four months ago, the People's Republic of China was on top of the world. Beijing continued to bask in the glow of the 2008 Olympics. And China seemed almost immune from the global economic crisis, its stimulus packages hailed as the driver of economic recovery in Asia and beyond.
Last week's announcement by Google that it would no longer allow censorship of its Chinese search engine, and that it might even pull out of China altogether, is sending shock waves through economic, social, and political circles. Google is being hailed by some for its courage in standing up to Chinese refusal to honor Western norms of freedom, online or otherwise.
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