I wondered how the North American Chinese-language press would deal with the Google controversy. Here in the NY area we get the Duowei Shibao, a weekly, not consistently pro- or anti-PRC government. Last week, in a front page above-the-fold editorial, a bold Duowei headline asks, “Is Google Representing the US in Conflict with China?” It suggests that Google is being used by the US to open a new front in relations. The article is suspicious that the US State Department got in the middle of the controversy as early and as forcefully as it did. (Obama administration does not move fast. It spent many months on Afghan strategy, months to pick out a family pet for crying out loud.)

The editorial quotes University of Maryland professor Gao Jing saying “The honeymoon is over.” Which made me wonder when was this honeymoon that I missed.

Inside the same section another article describes a “wag the dog” angle: with everything going wrong for the administration, the loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat, the end of the healthcare plan that that implies, 10% unemployment and so on, the White House wants to divert attention to an international situation in which the American side is the good guy in clear-cut terms.

This article notes the involvement of Google’s Eric Schmidt in the Obama campaign, transition, and economic advisory panels.

The Duowei website with an ever-changing menu of Google material is at http://www.dwnews.com/gb/Jiaodian/00000otd/00000otd.shtm and the latest thing in seems to be that the Chinese government would prefer to deal with it as a pure commercial dispute and not escalate.