What do citizens in China think of this? When Google Search was effectively banned, some scientists said that they depended on Google Scholar and Google Books, services which were also affected by the ban. Are Baidu and similar services really an effective replacement?
I'm also wondering what would happen if the U.S. takes this to the World Trade Organization. Arbitrarily blocking some company's services could well be interpreted as unfair trade practices. And a more aggressive U.S. government, perhaps with a more protectionist president in 2016, might well decide to retaliate.
Most are aware of it, and for a lot of things there simply aren't good replacements. Baidu is pretty much a poor clone of Google and definitely doesn't work as well (even for Chinese language searches).
At the same time though, Chinese people are fairly used to censorship. It's pervasive at every level in China, so much so that it can sometimes be difficult to see.
I think there is a stymying effect here, but there is no way that the Communist Party will give up censorship of the internet over nothing.
There might be at least some possibility that using the WTO could help this. It did have an effect on the rare earth trade when China was restricting rare earth exports [1]. I suspect China would fight _far_ harder against this though.
Thanks to GFW, many of my friends learned the usage of VPN/SSH/NAT/hosts at a very early age, which benefits a lot when taking computer network course. (>﹏<.)
How exactly do you deter a government that rolls tanks against its own citizens? I really don't think there's a democratic reform avenue here. People will deal with it, and largely accept it due to their anti-western attitudes. The Communist Party sees citizens as their subjects and will put them in line as need be. Its not a democracy.
Government is (usually) made of people. These people all want different things. This is as true as the Chinese government as it is of the US government.
A litany of complaints against the Chinese government can go on and on and on, but it's not (anymore) a single person dictatorship, nor is it an obvious kleptocracy despite robust corruption. Its claim of being a government for and by the people stands up to scrutiny, even if its methods and outcomes are oppressive and aren't democratic.
> rolls tanks against its own citizens
The same way you influence the other one that deploys military-grade/style equipment against its people[1], by attempting to influence members of that government.
I'm also wondering what would happen if the U.S. takes this to the World Trade Organization. Arbitrarily blocking some company's services could well be interpreted as unfair trade practices. And a more aggressive U.S. government, perhaps with a more protectionist president in 2016, might well decide to retaliate.