Google is backing out of Chinese market

I just saw this article on the BBC entitled "Google May Pull out of China after Gmail Cyber Attack." Here's the link to read the full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8455712.stm. It's about how Google, who agreed to enter the Chinese market by conceding to China's censorship stipulations in 2006, (China is really bad about censoring it's people, at least in my humble opinion. All of the papers and media are completely state-run and controlled, and dissenters are not tolerated) is considering pulling out of the Chinese market because many of its gmail users, particularly those involved in human rights, have been "routinely accessed by third parties." Represenatives at Baidu, the top Chinese search engine, say it's just because Google is losing its market share and is not as successful in China as they are.

I found this article interesting because it really demonstrates the juxtaposition of the Chinese view on the rights of the media and the people's access to media compared to ours. The U.S. is probably one of the most interested in protecting speech and press rights, whereas the Chinese come from a very different perspective. To them, it's about protecting the state from the people, not the people from the state. The collective comes before the individual for them, wheras we arguably value indivualism more than anyone else in the world. This shows through in our takes on what the media is supposed to be and do.