[prole]

I'm in Harbin, but location has little to do with it since this pertains more to cyberspace than meatspace. The pro-Google sentiment I refer to in the beginning was coming from mostly Western blogs and social news sites. For a Chinese netizen perspective, chinaSMACK translates comments from popular BBSes here (though I don't know about authenticity/bias - my Chinese isn't that good yet). Here's an example regarding the Google announcement: http://www.chinasmack.com/stories/google-threatens-leaving-c....

It's difficult for me to gauge the Chinese reaction on my own, though. A handful of translated comments or an online poll don't amount to anything, really. Doubly so once you're aware of the "50-cent gangsters" who are paid to astroturf online (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party and http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20091221_1.htm). The best resource I have are my adult students who spend the time online and can give me their impressions. So far, their responses have been to the tune of: "If Google leaves, what am I going to do!? I use GMail and many other services, and the search engine is better than Baidu for finding information in English. It's a critical part of my work!"

It should be noted that all of them (university-level and older) are aware of the censorship, they just have differing ideas on its necessity.

Do they feel like the West is unfairly criticizing China? The Party loves playing the victim, probably because Western media affords them ample opportunity. What better way to unify the Chinese and distract them from a growing number of domestic problems than an enormous external enemy? But it's probably not always the direct work of the government - the Chinese are culturally cohesive, where the group is more important than the individual. Nationalism and its ilk pop up so often in the discussions here with students, it's frightening. (I used to live in Japan before coming here, and naturally it comes up when meeting new people. Actually having to try and reassure some people that modern Japan does not want to invade China and enslave them is unreal.)

Honestly, it's tough to say if such anti-Western reactions are genuine (thought out and justified) or just an internalized defensive mechanism.