"Any tools developed for China could be easily implemented in Western markets, without anyone knowing it had been done."

Indeed. If data of Chinese citizens is on Google servers that Chinese social architects are permitted unrestrained access to, how is data on citizens of other jurisdictions to be secured? Google has enough of my data already, and I am confident it has resulted in negative consequences to me without China having gotten ahold of it.

As the powers exerted by China over it's subjects is desirable to those ruling other jurisdictions, and we see plentiful examples of pretense to lawful respect of the rights of their citizens by jurisdictions simply outsourcing panoptic surveillance to friendly foreign entities already, it is all too predictable that such access by China could be merely a handoff by state actors of malfeasance they'd like to commit but cannot.

The idealistic and trusting employees of Google are just beginning to realize they are no more than tools of those forces and powers they believe they are resisting by working there. I've been calling it Goolag for a while. Going forward, that may not be so humorous, particularly not for folks in China.

Thanks!