Is the censorship idea in China really that bad?

I recently read a document about Google. It talked about how much we really trust Google and about there motto "Do No Evil". In the message boards everyone was talking about how well Google sticks to the motto with one exception, The censorship they have imposed on China.

keep in mind that I live in Canada. I don't live there, and never have. The only information that I get on China is the stuff that seaps out of the seams. And one has to really question the accuracy of that information. It seems like everything I hear coming out of China is that it is a horrible place to live because of the laws and censorship that does go on there. I have a tough time believing all the information coming out of China.

Let's do a little history review. Before the 1950's China was in ruins. They just lost the war, and didn't have much money to fall on. Less then 10% of the population had 90% of the wealth (I've heard that it was closer to 3% wealthy population). There was no middle class, just an upper and lower class, and the lower class was treated like garbage. Low pay, beatings, the whole 9 yards. Sort of what was going on in Canada in the early teens before the unions started to move in.

Something had to be done. A civil was building in Japan and the end results was a new Government. This government had to do a lot of things to ensure it's safety. First they had to do away with a lot of the rich people (you may have heard that the dalai lama being leaving China, he was amongst the 10% richest). You may have also heard of the riots that went on. You can't ask 10% of the population to give up your money or get out so people caused riots.

The government also had to do various things like destroy historical items from China. I've heard that it wasn't all that historical at all. Nothing was broken that was more then 50 years. How can that be considered historic. I think a lot of it was related to the Dalia Lama.

The final thing the government had to do was censorship. They had to stop the bad information that the United States, and other countries were spreading about China. This had to be done because the world hated Communism which was the government that came to power. In a way I sort of wish that I didn't have to read all the negative garbage that the US says about Canada because we are more socialist and less capitalist then them. They don't live here yet they have their opinions that it is bad. I don't know the feelings of big business but I love living in Canada.

Back to the censorship. It became very important for China to censor the outside world. I don't blame China for doing it and I sure don't blame Google for offering there search engine uncensored. I don't believe that Google is doing evil by censoring the Google search engine. Let's go over all the reasons that it is good for Google to be doing this.

1. A world without Google would suck. The search engine is only one of the many services that they offer. Can you imagine a world without Google Calendar, Reader, Documents, ect. I love those features of Google. I'm not saying they are the best tools these days but they were the first. They were the ones that said it is possible and took a risk with coming out with it.

2. China law states that censorship has to occur. Google doesn't want to break the law. That would be infringing on their motto of "Do No Evil".

I don't blame China for being censored and to the people who live there aren't in a panic that Google has done it. It's just to the outside world it seems inhumane.

Reference: http://digg.com/tech_news/In_Google_we_trust_8.
Reference: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10127876-16.html?part=rss