Lawmakers grill Google over "enabling dictatorship" in China

House committees and subcommittees love to give bombastic speeches to folks - and many of the recipients are indeed deserving - yet these hearings often accomplish nothing more than a great soundbite of scolding.

The latest example is about Internet search engines adopting the restrictive standards of the Chinese government.

Note: A great way to see the difference between Google.com and Google.cn is to see image searches of "Tiananmen" in each. Guess which one has more of this:



While Google and the others definitely turned a blind eye for the cash, it's not as if the U.S. government has sanctions in place. Keep shopping at Wal-Mart, Congressman - you can't have it both ways.

Furthmore, one could argue that Google and Yahoo - even kowtowed to the Chinese requirements - are helping reform China by providing more information in the long run. Yes, it is problematic that the search engines conformed to restrictive standards. But if we're going to engage China as part of strategic effort to create interdependency, we can't be surprised when our companies try to increase their profits in the process.