Google in China - Oh, How “What’s the Right Thing To Do?” Gets Fuzzy
August 11th, 2006
Check out this 12 minute audiocast interview of Stanford Economist, Ward Hanson, on Google’s China dilemma.
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, China, Misc., Post Trip Wrap-Up re: China
3 Comments Add your own
1. Victoria Whelan | October 31st, 2006 at 9:53 am
I think that this was a very interesting interview, especially since we wrote a paper on it. It leads to a huge dilemma as to if the US businesses want to succumb to a world of censorship and governmental tracking or not enter the Chinese market. Blocking material is not ethical in most eyes and I feel it is completely unethical. People should be able to be aware of anything they want. The internet was created to have the world at your fingertips. Tracking, that the Chinese goverment does, is horrible because that takes away from individual freedom. True China doesn’t have the freedome we do, but it takes away from the usefulness of the internet and scares people from “searching the world”. China is the second largest user base in the world, so companies should still keep trying to enter the internet market and pushing the government to change. Companies need to be careful of the consequences of entering China, in the US and other countries, because people may be distraught about succumbing to communism just to make a buck.
2. Chris Carr | October 31st, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Good post. Well done. Let me play devil’s advocate with you a bit ….
Is it implied in Google’s “Do No Evil” mantra that part of “not” doing evil is to not break the law? Thus, if China’s laws say that what Google does or how it normally disseminates information is illegal in China and that Google needs to change its product or service to do business there, then isn’t the “ethical” thing to do to follow Chinese law?
What I am getting at is “how does one define what is ethical or what model does or should one use to determine what is and what is not ethical behavior?” Hopefully at Friday’s session with Professor Morris we will have an opening where I can very briefly address and discuss with you ethical theories such as natural law, legal positivism, utilitarianism, etc. as tools to put into your MBA toolkit.
3. Meghan Girvin | December 3rd, 2006 at 8:21 pm
This interview provides good insight to the dilemma faced by Google in China. The issue of whether or not Google should censor information on their website in China is not as cut and dry as saying it is either ethical or not ethical because many factors have to be taken into account. To answer Dr. Carr’s question, a business should determine ethical behavior based on a combination of their own values and the values of the culture they wish to do business with. In the U.S. it is strongly held that government censorship is unethical and should never be practiced. However, in China these same views are not held. It would be unethical for a U.S. business to impose their own ethical standards on another country that did not hold the same views. We need to look outside of our own culture and try to view the world from the eyes of the other. We can not expect to go into another country and do business as we please. In the U.S. we expect foreign businesses to follow our laws and regulations when conducting business in our country and it is only right that we show the same respect when conducting business in other countries. Although censorship may be unethical in the U.S., in China it is required by law and if a U.S. company wishes to do business there it is their responsibility to follow that law. If the ethical standards of a country differ from those of a U.S. business, they need to decide if they are willing to compromise to comply with the standards, or choose not to do business there.
In the interview, Ward Hanson illustrated how Google accomplished this. Although censorship is not consistent with Google’s values and they would never do it in the U.S., they felt that it is better to offer some information to the Chinese public rather than none at all. They also drew the line when it came to tracking abilities; they eliminated some features from their Chinese site that would have made it easier for the government to track individual usage. This approach allowed Google to blend its ethical beliefs with the values of the Chinese government and come up with a way to do business in the country that didn’t violate Chinese law or their ethical standards.
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