Asia

When Google launched its search engine four years ago in China, and bowed down to Chinese authorities who required Google to censor their search results, I was hugely disappointed. I had always been a strong proponent of Google's "don't be evil" motto, and even more so, having worked there for a short time, I firmly believed that Google management actually took their motto seriously. But then, after the entry to the Chinese market, my long discussions with friends and colleagues, trying to convince them Google was indeed not evil, became much more difficult and I seemed to lose quite some credibility. The promise that Google would only remain in China if progress was made on the freedom of speech issues seemed like a poor excuse to harness the lucrative business opportunities gained by entering the world's fastest growing internet nation.

Today, all that has changed. Read on to find out why I believe the recent developments are so important to China's future.