Is Google leading the way out of a "business as usual" paradigm on China?

The last week has featured a series of columns that have been highly negative on China. This development now seem to have culminated with the news that Google might leave China, even if not entirely. They have been there since 2006, despite their motto to not be evil. The current debacle is derived from a brutal cyber attack on activists that is believed to originate in China.

Taking a stand on the issue of whether or not concerns for human rights should influence how we do business with China or not is becoming increasingly difficult. Among the negative articles about China recently was one in The New York Times that pictured China as a ship in a storm with the most efficient, fastest responding, crew. Being able to make fast decisions and making people carrying them out would in future economic warfare be something others would have to emulate to be competitive.

Is China in this fashion challenging the whole democratic West? I for one believe that we should just continue our democratic business as usual and be confident that this paradigm holds. Emulating Chinese practises would be a disaster. To operate a country like it was in a disastrous environment all the time cannot be a winning scheme. There is not time for regular life and too much all the time has to be brushed under the carpet. There is too little time for maintenance and repair.