One thing I'd like to know about Google's China decision

Move to stop censoring and threat to leave country reverberate around the world

Question: Did Google inform the State Department and/or the White House before deciding to reverse course on its longstanding policy of appeasement toward China? Did the company inform Washington before announcing the shocker yesterday?

My guess would be that the Obama Administration was in the loop early and fully briefed before the news became public via a Google blog post yesterday. Obviously, the State Department was informed at some point early on given that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quick with a comment.

What Google does or does not do literally effects world events, including obviously the always delicate relationship between the United States and China. So the order of Google's decision making and communication would be interesting to know.

If anyone sees a reliable account please send a link my way.

• China
• Google
• security