Some Big Tech companies are fleeing China
Yahoo and LinkedIn have left China entirely. Who will be next?
China is not exactly a friend to free and open communication. Everyone knows this. The Chinese Communist Party is notorious for draconian lock-downs on what data can be shared and what people can say in both private and public communication.
Starting yesterday (November 1st, 2021) China has locked things down even further as China’s Personal Information Protection Law (which is less about “protecting” personal information… and more about giving the government total control) came into effect. When combined with already existing Chinese regulations — and an ever-increasing emphasis on only allowing state-approved communications — many companies are choosing to leave China altogether.
From one state-written declaration entitled “Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Network Civilization”:
“The country aims to consolidate the guiding status of Marxism in the ideological cyberspace sphere, foster a common ideology among the whole Party and the Chinese people, and interiorize core socialist values.”
The Chinese Communist Party is going so far as to require total government control of massive amounts of data being transferred with servers in other countries.
Suffice to say, it’s not a good time to run an online services company in China. Or be an Internet user in China. Or… live in China.
Yahoo!, for example, has chosen to leave the country entirely. And I can’t blame them. Their official statement:
“In recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment in China, Yahoo’s suite of services will no longer be accessible from mainland China as of November 1. Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support.”
Yahoo! isn’t the first, nor will they be the last. From an official statement by LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft):
“We’re also facing a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China. Given this, we’ve made the decision to sunset the current localized version of LinkedIn, which is how people in China access LinkedIn’s global social media platform”
With both Yahoo! and LinkedIn having completely pulled out of mainland China, one has to wonder… which Big Tech company will be the next to close operations there? How long can other firms last doing business in the Marxist nightmare that is China?
Google? Apple? Seems like the clock is ticking. And the remainder of Microsoft seems primed to exit China, considering they have already pulled their LinkedIn division.
It will be interesting to see which companies pull out of China — and take a stand against the horrible policies of that country… and which companies will bow down to the demands of the Chinese Communist Party.