In our second offering, Adam Segal, Ira A. Lipman Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and National Security Studies for the Council for Foreign Relations, is interviewed about the situation and makes several interesting points.
As we’re all likely aware, this move on Google’s part comes at a tense moment in the U.S.-China relationship. "The Google decision also feeds into a broader sense of China as spoiler… I would suspect the next six months is going to be very bumpy."
Segal also sees the move as an indicator that the "world-wide" web is breaking apart. With various tools widely used in some parts of the world and abandoned in others (e.g., Orkut in Brazil or Friendster in Southeast Asia), can we really argue with him? But Segal sees further fragmentation of the Internet into almost entirely separate entities, one based in the Western world and one in the East.
From http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/friday_podcast_parade_google_china_told_by_folks_w.php