Just recently, the U.S Senate questioned Googles CEO Sundar Pichai about its potential involvement in China, specifically the “Firefly” prototype. In a notable moment one senator asked if he walked to the other side of the room would google know. The answer of course is “it depends” and at the same time “definitely”. But Pichai’s reluctance to answer straight shows, not that there are hidden sins, but that Google is an international company and understands that it’s users in the United States have a wide range of under-defined ethics.

In contrast China does not have an under-defined ethics. They know what they think is right and wrong. They have standards and they are very different from the Western worlds. If Google gets in (and that is a big if) they will require google to censor their content and provide data that will help them control people. And since Google won’t just have Chinese users, China can request information to control other countries’ citizens.

America…speak up

Of course for now, America is the superior consumer and producer of tech. But China surpasses America in one category: mobile transactions. This is no small detail. Mobile transactions are the future. But Americans seem reluctant to accept this because of privacy concerns. So as they drag their feet, China steams ahead pioneering the technology that everyone will inevitably use in a few years. Companies are concerned that if they don’t get on board they will become dinosaurs and may potentially miss out on access to one of the biggest markets in the world (China). Companies don’t want to lose out, so they conform to other standards.