Silicon valley discovers compromise.(Scan: Short news and commentary)(Google in China)

As the front door to the Internet, seeking "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Google has acknowledged a sense of grave responsibility with the pithy motto: "Don't be evil." Yet, days after obstructing the efforts of the U.S. government to prosecute child pornographers, the search engine has now tailored a new interface to facilitate the Chinese government's program of political censorship. Watchdog groups lamented a "black day for freedom of expression in China."

Any user searching the Internet from China through Google.cn for "Tiananmen," "Falun Gong," "Dalai Lama," or even "democracy" now finds Communist Party propaganda in the place of open discussion. In return for a lucrative spot within the "Great Firewall of China," Google has sold out the principles of openness and universal access that it ostentatiously proclaims.

Unlike other American firms that have compromised with totalitarians, Google serves the Chinese people, rather than the Chinese state, and provides much that can assist the cause of freedom. Although the Chinese government employs an estimated 30,000 police to suppress Internet content, China now has over 100 million Web users, and Google alone indexes over 10 billion Web sites.

While the ...