A mean post. But also a lazy one.

Google the author's name and many of the questions you raise in the third paragraph ("Have you ever been to China? Do you know anything about the culture or government? Do you study their economy or their political landscape?") will be answered (yes, yes and yes).

Google doesn't have any obligation to serve China and MacKinnon's point is simply that these internet companies are at a crossroads and shouldn't trade integrity for customers.

What she is suggesting isn't that the US Government "dictate policy" but rather that those US citizens who think rights abuses are BAD (count me in) hold US companies to high standards when it comes to privacy and freedom of speech.

If "customers" and shareholders and investment operations put pressure on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to avoid complicity in human rights infringements and Google turns its back on China, then China looks worse in the world's eye and falls behind. MacKinnon's very article is pressure in the form of bad PR.

And I don't know why you're so hung up on education (I think credentials are often overvalued) but as long you are, my dad has a PhD in Chinese history from Harvard and won't use Google for this very reason. Does Google notice? Probably not. But he tells his students his rationale and he still thinks its the right thing to do, which matters.

Be well.