Kristin R. MoyerUS President Obama, and other world leaders for that matter, have been criticized this past year for not being hard enough on China and its human rights track record (see here). While human rights are generally viewed as a political issue, they are fast becoming a (bigger) business issue as well.
Google announced a sophisticated attack that originated in China. They suspect hackers were trying access Google e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. These attacks combined with free speech issues are leading Google to consider exiting China (see here and here).
This move will impact banks and technology vendors viewing China as a growth opportunity. Chinese officials are likely to be outraged. A deeper protectionist stance may emerge as a result, which has been growing in force lately anyway (with new government procurement rules, for example – see here).
Financial institutions and technology vendors must therefore re-evaluate and re-calibrate human rights issues into their market strategy for China (and other countries with human rights issues) – from both a risk management and market opportunity perspective. If attackers are interested in the e-mails of human rights activists, imagine how interested they are in their bank accounts and financial transactions.
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Category: Executive Decisions Uncategorized Tags: google, human rights
