This week’s The Economist has a great article on the Internet in China. Largely it’s about censorship and the problems facing both domestic and foreign Internet companies. But it’s also about the unstoppable force that is the Internet, even when there are 30 000 Internet police watching it. Key quote:

“China’s news portals, in their competition for traffic, will continue to test the limits of official tolerance. And in a competitive market few internet-café operators pay attention to government requirements that users’ identities should be registered. An hour on a broadband connection in an internet café in a small town can cost as little as one yuan—about 13 cents.”

Now that’s good. My experience, from a couple of years back, is that the real problem isn’t just the hard obstacles facing Chinese Internet users, such as content “disappearing”; it’s the fact that users don’t even know they can visit foreign web sites to find uncensored information. A mental firewall is still a firewall.

I believe a lot has changed in that regard the last few years. And that’s why I believe it’s a good thing more and more companies seek to establish their services in China. It will wear down the mental firewall and introduce new sources of information.

But companies need to be aware of what they will be facing, and adjust their strategies in a responsible way. To me, Google’s strategy seems the right one; don’t offer services (Gmail, Blogger) that could potentially bring people into trouble with the authorities. At least to start with.