Imports OK, Exports bad

Here's an interesting blog post: Hypocrisy in the China Syndrome

Google's under fire because its search engine designed for China filters out stuff the government doesn't want their people to know about. As it is, they can search Google.com to get stuff on Tiananmen Square, but performance is spotty at best.

Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat, criticized Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Cisco. He accused the four corporations of "nauseating collaboration with a regime of repression." Source

Wow.

I'll grant Lantos a bit of leeway because he's the co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, but I think the reaction (not to mention the threat of regulary legislation) is a bit much. He's right, of course, that China is a "regime of repression," but so what?

What the above-linked blog points out, though, is that we don't have any problem with stuff made in China and shipped here, no matter what the conditions are. Why the hypocrisy about companies that do business there? Eighty percent of the stuff you buy in Walmart comes from there, but no one's talking about legislation that might restrict those imports and save American jobs, but would also raise prices.

So we're OK with repression when it means lower prices, but we can't allow U.S. companies to compete overseas unless they're also forcing American standards on foreign governments.

Is there any wonder why we face such a huge trade deficit?