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Google is getting a lot of bad press following their announcement that they’ve agreed to self-censor their results on their Chinese portal, and they deserve it. Longtime readers of this blog will know that I’m a pretty big Google fan, but I must admit to a measure of disappointment, though not surprise, at the company’s decision. VodkaPundit’s Stephen Green makes a good point, though:

And what will Google do for China? The answer is: Less than it’s done for us.

In a high-tech economy, the free flow of information defines how competitive a people can be. Less freedom, lower competitiveness. There’s more to it than that, however. More information means less opacity, and that means more corruption. This, in turn again, means lower competitiveness.

China is trying to compete in the high-tech economy, while crippling the tools that make such competition possible.

I don’t mean to say that you shouldn’t be mad at Google. I am, and will be so long as they continue with such repugnant business practices. And don’t get me wrong – having Google, even a restricted version, will in some small way prolong China’s dictatorship. And the Chinese people will suffer, by losing what could have been a sharp weapon in their fight for freedom.

But it’s not the end of the world, either.

And it isn’t. Google’s not the first company to cave into political pressure, and they won’t be the last.