It was a tale of two superpowers and a simmering hostility that spanned the course of years. While China emerged the victor, the failed challenger is not who you may have thought.

On Monday, March 22, the sun set on Google’s China operation for the last time. The move marked the closing scene of a drama that has been unfolding since the company entered Chinese territory in late 2006. It was somber drama that ended in Google admitting defeat.

As flowers were left on the Google corporate logo outside the corporation’s Chinese headquarters, the small gesture spoke volumes. It was a mixture of feelings of sadness, for a lost opportunity for freedom, and respect, for an honourable attempt at cracking the infamous “Great Firewall of China”.

In China, companies are forced to abide by strict government regulations of the Internet. However, in the early days of Google’s introduction into the Chinese mediascape, many thought things would be different for two reasons.

First, Erc Schmidt, CEO of Google, stated, “We will take a long-term view to win in China. The Chinese have 5000 years of history. Google has 5000 years of patience in China.”  Second, because, as Clay Shirky said, “what [Google is] exporting isn’t a product or a service, it’s a freedom.” Thus, with the unwavering support of a powerful multinational corporation, and the Western liberalist values inherent in the company’s presence, how could Google fail?

Kai-Fu Lee, the head of operations for Google in China, was one of those believers. In late 2006, upon Google’s launch in China, he optimistically posted to his blog: “youth + freedom + equality + bottom-up innovation + user focus + don’t be evil = The Miracle of Google.”

Today, however, Lee’s idealism appears nothing more than a foreshadowing of debacle and hypocrisy.

This is because, over the past few years, the multinational corporation’s actions in China have been in stark contrast to Google’s motto of “don’t be evil.” In fact, since the launch of company’s China initiative, it appeared Google was quite content playing ball with the Chinese.

In order to comply with censorship laws, the multinational corporation agreed to remove search results of any sites sanctioned by the Chinese government. In return, Google received flack from the international community for submitting to China’s wishes.

Google felt the wrath of those who felt they had gone against all that the company claimed it stood for. The blatant hypocrisy was evident in the fact that when the company went public in 2004, its founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, included in the company’s official filing for the Securities and Exchange Commission that Google is “a company that is trustworthy and interested in the public good.” The company’s actions in China, however, only prove how quickly we depart with idealism.

In its defense, Google argued that its presence as a censored search engine was better than no search service at all. However, according to the New York Times, after it discovered that its network had been hacked from inside China, and that the Gmail accounts of human rights activists had been infiltrated, that tradeoff no longer seemed defensible.

Of the company’s recent move out of China, Google’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, said this “goes to the heart of a much larger global debate about freedom of speech.”

Immediately after Google shut its doors, the New York Times reported that the Chinese government launched an aggressive campaign to erase pro-Google sentiment from cyberspace.

Comments on social networking sites that are supportive of Google “will be deleted in a couple of seconds,” said Oiwan Lam, 38, an independent journalist and researcher who is an expert on Chinese independent media.

According to the China Digital Times, the Chinese State Council Information Office warned all news sites to “carefully manage the information in exchanges, comments and other interactive sessions” and “clean up text, images and sound and videos which support Google, dedicate flowers to Google, ask Google to stay, cheer for Google and others that have a different tune from government policy.”

China is known to regularly influence news coverage on sensitive issues. Nonetheless, the newly implemented restrictions in regards to Google are notably strict.

Today, we must question who has more to lose in this ramping up of Internet censorship. As the United States continues to struggle to develop a foreign policy for the digital realm, it is clear that someone/something must stand up to repressive regimes which seek to stifle free speech. Will Google be our saviour? In my opinion, it is far too early to tell.

Undoubtedly, however, China’s ability to force Google out of the country set a dangerous precedent. A precedent that we can rest assured has not gone unnoticed. Now, the only question left is who will be the next emerging power to stand in Google’s way?

Evgeny Morozov thinks he knows. In a recent blog post he begged the question, “Is Russia Google’s next weak spot?” We are just going to have to wait and see.