With Google censorship, China is tough -- on the outside

The Communist Party has long wrestled with how to weigh the competing dictates of economic openness and social control; how to attract international businesses without bringing in too many foreigners and their alien ideas; how to let people enjoy the educational opportunities of the outside world without undermining the party's ideological hold.

When there's been a clash of those interests, Beijing almost always has come down on the side of control. In that context, its unwillingness to bend to Google Inc.'s demands for less censorship of the Internet was a foregone conclusion. "The Chinese are very mindful of the potential political repercussions of openness -- they make no bones about it -- and around the margins, their desire to maintain social stability will trump any other issue," said Kenneth Lieberthal, senior China analyst at the Brookings Institution.