Beijing, March 22 (IANS) Google should not “politicise” the row with the Chinese government, an editorial in a Chinese daily said, adding that the US internet giant has “suddenly announced it no longer wants to follow the rules it had no trouble following earlier”.
China Daily editorial Monday said: “Business is business. But when it involves political tricks, business will come to an end soon. The more Google politicises the issue, the less room it leaves for itself for further negotiations.”

It observed that compliance with the country’s laws and regulations was standard practice for international businesses.

“Despite the colonial era when a foreign company such as the British East India Company could assume an overriding power over a sovereign state, in modern times an individual foreign company never gains the upper hand when it’s in trouble with a country’s laws.”

The editorial added: “The cyberattack controversy surrounding Google and its developments are increasingly challenging our common sense and knowledge about the world.”

It went on to say that four years back, the company came to China and accepted the legal norms of the country, which regulates the Internet as a necessary protection to the interests of the largest group of netizens in the world.

“Four years later, it suddenly announced it no longer wants to follow the rules it had no trouble following earlier. With the United States throwing its weight behind it under the pretext of Internet freedom, Google thinks it may have a chance to press the Chinese government into giving its search engine no restriction at all across the border.”

The editorial observed that netizens “will simply move on to other search engines if Google pulls out of a large and growing market. The US company will be the biggest loser in all of this”.

Google has said it might pull out of the Chinese market, citing disagreement with government policies and attacks targeting its services in China.