Relations between China and the United States have always been something of a “porcupine mating dance,” Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, told the E-Commerce Times.
Specifically, China’s growing financial power and ambitions have often caused the U.S. government and businesses alike to “approach the relationship with kid gloves,” King explained.
Yet China has acted in many cases as “anything but a global partner,” he pointed out. With all the issues of product safety and the roadblocks that the Chinese government has put before foreign companies, “it’s created an atmosphere where it’s simply very difficult for businesses to feel as though they’re being treated seriously” in the country.
“My hat’s off to Google,” King said. “The Chinese may feel as though they can live without Google, and perhaps that’s the case from a practical standpoint, but having your market abandoned by a company with such a global brand and cachet is not a good indicator.”
No one wants to “close the door on these opportunities, but at the same time no company can afford to have their intellectual property ransacked,” he concluded. “No market can afford to have one player that talks like a partner out of one side of its mouth and acts like a bandit out of the other.”
Meanwhile, negotiations between Google and the Chinese government are ongoing, according to this CNet report.
