Ed Stoffel

This April 15 photo shows the stern of the sunken South Korean warship PCC-772 Cheonan. South Korea has accused North Korea of torpedoing the warship near their disputed border, sending regional tensions rising as the North responded with threats of war. (Image: AFP/File – Byun Yeong-Wook)

China’s latest wave of cyber attacks on Google’s infrastructure may cause lasting changes in foreign relations between the United States and China. Google has already been taking heat for bending to China’s wishes in censoring search results within the country. But now, China’s actions to pursue human-rights activists by hacking into Google’s email and blogging platforms has gone too far. Google’s response was to remove search result censorship, and promise that if necessary, they will pull out of China altogether.

As a practical matter, China must recognize that an attack on Google is an attack on the United States. Google hosts a significant percentage of American business communications, as well as a growing amount of state and local municipal government communications. It remains to be seen whether China values relations with the U.S. enough to take the steps necessary to reverse the course of these damaging events.

“It’s not Google leaving China, it’s China leaving the world.”
不是谷歌退出了中国，而中国退出了世界。

This is a view of Washington from the Pentagon, after 9/11.