internet - Google in China: not evil nor smart

Getting things right is tough for everybody, but Google is beating many of previous efforts, if the story in the Wall Street Journal (unlinkable but here summerized by Bills Due) is true. As a part of a labor case involving Mr. Lee before a US judge they voluntarily disclosed their China strategy. While I appreciate the American openness, they do create themselves a problem here.
On December 23, 2004, an updated China launch strategy, foreseen for the summer of 2005 was presented:

... which stated strategic objectives including accelerating "transformation of China from within" -- in other words, spreading information access and democracy from within China. The presentation, which is included in the court documents, listed a series of target dates for the company's China business, including launching a China sales operations center by summer of 2005. Google provided the internal China-strategy documents because they are potentially relevant to Microsoft's allegations, which include that Mr. Lee's work for Google in China is directly competitive with what he did at Microsoft."

Bills Due translates "transformation of China from within" as possibly efforts to subvert the Chinese government. I do think that a wide variation of less drastic interpretations are possible, but would still not have published this kind of strategy. It is so easy to create misunderstandings on either side.

Update: Bills Due clarifies in an email my slightly slanted summery of his entry:

i am not saying that google is trying to subvert the chinese government, just that there are elements in the government who are very explicit in thinking that there are multiple foreign threats with this goal (tried to find a speech from hu jintao from a few months ago about party members needed to be alert to foreign threats to link to, could not find it), and that those folks could very easily grab onto this comment from google and run with it. this is what i wrote:

they are playing directly into the hands of those information and party bureaucrats here who believe that Western media companies are participants in a plot to subvert the Chinese government.

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