U.S. Policy has been based upon the fact that globalisation and economic growth would ease censorship and repression in Socialist China.  But it hasn't.   The Chinese continue to expand their Socialist propaganda and censorship.  The Google incursion involved a serious cyberattack on the Gmail accounts of human rights activists.   Remember that Yahoo had actually helped Chinese authorities to find a dissident which resulted in his arrest and incarceration for 11 years.

The moment is set for confrontation on a global scale about the importance of Freedom of Speech and censorship  In this article, "Why America and China will Clash," you can see how the issue of censorship remains with the recent Google confrontation.

The president’s recent set-piece speech on Asia was a classic statement of the case for US engagement with China – complete with the ritualistic assertion that America welcomes China’s rise. But, after being censored by Chinese television in Shanghai and harangued by a junior Chinese official at the Copenhagen climate talks, Barack Obama may be feeling less warm towards Beijing. An early sign that the White House is hardening its policy could come in the next few months, with an official decision to label China a “currency manipulator”.

Even if the administration itself does not move, the voices calling for tougher policies against China are likely to get louder in Congress. Google’s decision to highlight the dangers of cyberattack from China will play to growing American security fears about China. The development of Chinese missile systems that threaten US naval dominance in the Pacific are also causing concern in Washington. Impending US arms sales to Taiwan are already provoking a dispute.

The Google decision about censorship seems based in both an ideal and business.   If Google wishes to market itself as a primary system for managing email, purchases, our lives and more, then its technology must be 100% trustworthy and secure.  These serious incursions for Socialist thugs running down human rights activists.  In a visit to the Google Beijing offices, Sergey Brin discussed the source of his concern about censorship.

The Google co-founder Sergey Brin spelt out to his shell-shocked Beijing staff on Wednesday morning that they were at the centre of no ordinary commercial dispute.

True, Google was not finding it easy to make money in China. Yes, the China-originated cyber attack on Google's source code and Gmail accounts was a serious challenge to Google's technical and reputational integrity. But Brin drew on his family's bitter roots in the Soviet Union to frame his company's decision as one of principle.

Earlier that day Google's legal officer David Drummond had presaged Brin's sentiments when he broke the story to the world on his company blog, which is blocked in China.

"We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech," he wrote.