Hooray for Google

John Bolton writes in the Wall Street Journal:

Google’s decision to stop censoring searches on its China-based servers, rerouting search requests instead to its uncensored Hong Kong facilities, is historic. Google has shown itself unwilling simply to be on the receiving end of whatever Beijing dishes out–and highlighted the growing importance of Hong Kong and Taiwan in shaping the decisions that foreign businesses in China must make.

When an enterprise of Google’s global dimensions and visibility reverses course in China and is no longer a passive, compliant subject of government diktats, it sends a message to enterprises world-wide: You can do the same.

Related thoughts from Rebecca MacKinnon, here.