MSN.COM (owned by Microsoft Corporation) recently set up a Chinese language portal to serve the China market. It was pointed out that this portal, like any other operating in China, had to comply with Chinese government censorship rules (the "Great Firewall of China"). The Chinese government said nothing, Microsoft merely pointed out that if you don't obey the local laws, you can't do business. This applies in other parts of the world, like Europe, where certain things cannot be said, or bought and sold on auction sites. The Chinese censorship is meant to control the spread of democracy and dissent.