While the jury is still out on what really prompted Google's partial retreat from the mainland and its future uncertainties in a country with the world's biggest online population, nearly 400 million, one thing is certain. The company has thrown a global spotlight on the mainland's internet freedom - or lack of it.
Gleeful human rights activists have wasted no time piling in, hoping the Google episode will draw international attention to what they see as increasingly harsh controls over media and a crackdown on political dissent, and put more pressure on the Chinese leadership.
This is likely to reinforce views held by many outside China that the increasingly repressive mainland regime has kept the media tightly muzzled, internet chat rooms closely monitored, and dissenting voices silenced.
But, as many overseas visitors discover after spending some time on the mainland, the reality can be different from what they read or watch about China in the international media. There is no doubt that the mainland leadership has tried to step up control of media and the internet and meted out more severe punishments on political dissidents in recent years.
Editors who penned editorials challenging government policies have been punished, and dissident Liu Xiaobo was jailed for subversion after he co-authored 'Charter 08', a petition that merely called for broad political and democratic reforms. Many activists who initially harboured high hopes of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao for political liberalisation in their early days of power have now turned their eyes to the next generation of leaders, who will take over in 2012.
In addition to political dissent, the mainland's ominous and massive security and propaganda apparatus is also cracking down and censoring reports on ethnic minorities in Xinjiang or Tibet seen as advocating independence, Falun Gong, and those calling for a review of the June 4 Tiananmen crackdown. Speculation on the personal lives of the top mainland leaders has also been banned.
But there are fewer areas that are off limits to mainland media and the public compared with even 10 years ago, and the scale and strength of control by the state is less effective than it looks. The mainland media, and particularly the internet, is as feisty, lively and aggressive on a wide range of issues as can be - contrary to the prevailing view outside China.