internet - Google sticks to self-destructive argument

The new Google search services has triggered off quite some discussion by excluding banned website from its searches. The China Digital News gives an overview.
"For users inside the People's Republic of China, we have chosen not to include sources that are inaccessible from within that country," Google says in a statement. In many of the online and offline discussions I had in the past week, people did expect Google to come up with something more creative. Their argument is simply not valid.
The interesting part is that most of the organizations stick to their believe that the internet blocks are information effectively away from the internet users in China. In my experience the technical barriers are highly symbolic and I see a huge cultural barrier that is conveniently ignored.