coupland's Journal: Microsoft to Pull Out of China for Humanitarian Reasons?

I thought this BBC article was fascinating. Apparently Microsoft is considering pulling out of China for humanitarian reasons. Yeah, right. I don't doubt Microsoft is considering the current political climate, but it's got nothing to do with protecting bloggers. After all, why aren't they pulling out of Saudi Arabia or Iran? I think it's obvious the real reason is China's lax IP laws, rampant software piracy, the government's pro-open-source rhetoric, and the Chinese government's general reticence to a) trust matters of national security to proprietary companies based in the USA and b) ship massive amounts of national wealth to the head offices of companies headquartered outside Asia. And it's not just Microsoft that's finding the business climate hostile, lots of other companies are too. But it's easier to make a sound bite out of persecuted bloggers than to argue in favour of stronger IP laws on behalf of one of the most profitable companies in the world.