A Demonstration of Why Google-China Censorship, When It Becomes Fully Functional, Is a Bad Thing

From the BBC (HT S.O.B. Alliance member Weapons of Mass Discussion; bold after title is mine):

China editor ‘died after beating’

A Chinese editor has died as a result of a police beating he received for his paper’s reporting on corruption, journalists and rights groups say.

Wu Xianghu had been in hospital since the attack in October, suffering from an existing liver problem made worse by the beating, earlier reports said.

….. Local media reported widely on the beating, but have been silent on Wu’s death, possibly reflecting its sensitivity.

There’s the key. Thanks to Internet Wall of Shame member Google (assuming the filtering apparatuses are fully functional; if it’s not, one would think they soon will be), someone trying to search for the truth from the BBC, on Chinese blogs, or in chat rooms trying to work around the intimidated “local media” won’t be able to, as “Wu Xianghu” will become one of the forbidden search and conversational terms. I don’t know whether the filtering also occurs in e-mail and instant messages yet, but based on what I’ve read, it would apppear that if the Chinese government tells Wall of Shame member Cisco and other “security” providers to jump, they’ll ask “how high?”

If the Internet were wide open in China, the truth wouldn’t be suppressed. Thanks to American high-tech, it’s moving to the point where it largely isn’t, and promises to get worse.
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UPDATE: This Google China search on “Wu Xianghu” (warning: foreign characters that may affect your browser) has an entry (the 8th at the moment) about Wu’s death. It’s important to note that whatever someone outside of China can see at Google.cn may not be the same as what a person can see inside the country.