My guess is that part of the tussle with Chinese authorities which Google does not talk about may be demands made on Google for information on individuals.
More than censorship, it may be the surveillance aspect.
It is maybe in this context that Eric Schmidt told users: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
Maybe the Chinese authorities told Google: "If you have something on users that you don't want us to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
And Google did not want to stop keeping user information for just China....
My guess is that part of the tussle with Chinese authorities which Google does not talk about may be demands made on Google for information on individuals. More than censorship, it may be the surveillance aspect.
It is maybe in this context that Eric Schmidt told users: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
Maybe the Chinese authorities told Google: "If you have something on users that you don't want us to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." And Google did not want to stop keeping user information for just China....