IN 2001 human-rights activists in China greeted a little-known search engine called Google with enthusiasm as the most important tool ever created to skirt state censorship.  Users could retrieve content that Beijing banned by clicking to call up a “cached” copy of the web page, stored by Google. 

It wasn’t long before Google itself was being sporadically censored by Communist Chinese authorities.  For a short time its web address was even re-routed by Chinese network operators to the website of a local rival. And then Google was instructed to deactivate that particular feature. 

Google, suddenly all grown up and now a corporate giant, has entered the dragon's den. On January 25th the search engine “Google.cn” began operations.  As a first step towards beefing up the company's local presence, it will place computer-servers in-country. This accelerates service for mainland users, who otherwise must penetrate the great firewall of China, a hurdle that dramatically slows access to Google.com and the world outside of Communist China.

Having in-country infrastructure gives Google's search-engine rivals, such as China's Baidu.com (which enjoys around 40% of the Chinese search market, compared with Google's 30%),  a distinct advantage.  And Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN will also have in-country operations.

China's internet market, with more than 100 million users, is one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative in the world. Can Google—with its motto “don't be evil”—do business in China without losing its soul?

Google’s rationale is that entering China, even with constraints, provides the Chinese people with more information than if it remained outside. Yet the decision comes as American internet firms such as Yahoo! and MSN duck criticism that they are rolling over for Chinese authorities and that this represents a precedent for wider censorship of the Internet.

Google’s business philosophy is that taking the high road is a way to differentiate its service. Last month America's Department of Justice subpoenaed Google seeking more than 1 million web addresses and a weeks' worth of all users' searches (down from an original demand of every web address it holds and two months of searches).  The government wants the data in order to examine the effectiveness of software filters to block pornography, for a case involving a law prohibiting the content, which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional.

The government requested, and received, information from Yahoo!, MSN and AOL—all of which initially stonewalled in public about whether they disclosed the data. Google resisted, arguing that to comply with the AJ’s request would suggest it is willing to reveal information about those who use its services.  The day the subpoena was made public, Google's shares dropped almost 9%, its largest single-day decline since it began trading in 2004.

Google's stance could put commercial pressure on its rivals to adopt more customer-friendly policies, and may serve as a warning to other internet firms to treat customers' data with more care. And it might even serve as a precedent for resisting our own government in its ever present interest in snooping into our private lives.  But such high-mindedness will be tested as Google enters the dragon’s den.

Interestingly enough, there may be additional pressure on the ethics, or lack thereof, of the industry from that bastion of ethics, the U.S. Congress.  Even Conservatives have long complained about the country's human-rights abuses.  Now there is much "gnashing of teeth and rending of garments" over the collusion between our Communist Chinese trading partners and American internet firms in the trampling of individual freedom.

On Wednesday (February 15th) managers from Yahoo!, Cisco, Microsoft and Google were invited to a congressional hearing called to consider whether the internet should be supported as a tool for suppression in China.

Chris Smith, a conservative Republican from New Jersey, is drafting a bill that would require Internet search engine service providers to keep computer servers out of countries, principally China, that abuse human rights.

Keep an eye on this issue as it develops legs.  It has ramifications well beyond China.  You may rest assured that the Bus***es are watching it closely.