For China Media Project, Qian Gang responds to a Washington Post article about the potential departure of Google from China:
Not long ago, the Washington Post ran a story by correspondent John Pomfret called, “In China, Google users worry they may lose an engine of progress.” One source interviewed for the story, an academic, said: “If Google is blocked, we will see nothing but darkness.”
The Washington Post story set off a firestorm of speculation in the media. Would China descend into darkness without Google? In my view, this is a pseudo question. The question of whether China grows dark or not does not hinge on any one factor. Google’s exit from mainland China is a certainly a loss for the people of China. But there are thousands of journalists in China fighting every day for freedom. They will continue to work, inching ahead, regardless of whether or not topics like June Fourth or Liu Xiaobo can be discussed. This is why the flame of professional media in China burns on, and why we see sparks like investigative reporter Wang Keqin’s expose last week on faulty vaccines in Shanxi. Light and dark dance around each other every day in China.
