As China grows increasingly important in the world economy, American companies are feeling the political pressure to "act responsibly" as they do business inside Chinese borders. The United States and China have vastly different views on human rights, democracy, individual privacy and political freedom. Now American high-tech companies such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco and Google are caught in the middle of this battle of political wills.

No market is more attractive right now than China, with its population of more than 1 billion. Conservative estimates put the current market of individual computer users at 110 million and growing. No wonder tech companies are anxious to take root in China.

The hallmark of the Digital Age is that more people have easy access to more information than ever before. Americans think that's good, as we believe information helps people think and act for themselves. The Chinese government, on the other hand, prefers that its populace have a more controlled (read: censored) access to information and expression.

Here's where Google ends up between a rock and a hard place. To operate in China, Google had to agree to filter certain content the Chinese government finds objectionable. The resulting service, called Google.cn, is a sanitized version of the search engine. Google is not happy about the restrictions, but the company says they are necessary to conduct business in China. Call it the Great Firewall of China.

The repercussions were swift and loud. Google has been called anti-democratic, evil, shameful and greedy. Human rights activists and members of Congress blasted the companies for giving in to a repressive government.

Yahoo also made headlines recently when it acknowledged revealing the name of a Chinese citizen who used the Internet to express his political views. Microsoft found itself in trouble over hosting and then abruptly disconnecting a popular blog by New York Times research assistant Zhao Jing. Further, Microsoft launched an MSN portal that blocks the use of the words "freedom" and "democracy." Cisco is accused of supplying the Chinese government with switching equipment that helps to monitor and filter Web traffic. Cisco said it did nothing specific to help the government take such actions.