In Battle With China, Google Stakes Out High Ground

It's about time somebody took China to task for getting rich from globalization while resisting the openness that makes it possible, writes Roger Cohen. The confrontation between Google and China—"the behemoth of global connectedness and the behemoth of global growth"—exposes the paradox behind China's transformation, Cohen writes in the New York Times.

China's leaders have done an impressive job in "delivering development from deprivation," Cohen writes. They seem excessively wary of the new society that has resulted from that development, however, displaying a level of suspicion that makes observers, like blogger Xu Caixing, ask questions like, "Who is afraid? What are they afraid of?" Cohen writes. "Discussions between Google and the Chinese government will fail if they do not answer them." (More China stories.)