This could, however, go beyond traffic analysis. What happens when
China slaps Google by taking over "google.cn" and places a web site
that appears to be Google there?
This then leads to the interesting question of exactly what sort of
things were taken from Google (which is what I guess based on
"corporate infrastructure [...] theft of intellectual property).
Is it completely outside the realm of possibility that China might
have stolen sufficient technology to replicate resources such as
Google search and mail? Or things such as SSL certificates? I keep
thinking about it, and it seems to me like Google decided it was
better to cry fire now... before Chinese citizens ended up submitting
searches to "Google.cn" and having them intercepted and analyzed by
the Chinese government. There are, of course, numerous possibilities
as to what's really going on, but whatever it is, I get the distinct
feeling that we're getting a carefully spun story.
... JG