In the wake of the latest threat by the Chinese government, Google Inc.’s only choice is to pack up and exit the Chinese market, wholesale. In lieu of this, Chinese authorities on Friday told local news websites that if Google China does close, they will be required to use only official news accounts of situations, rather than publish stories from anywhere else.

The departure effectively removes the biggest foreign player from the world’s most populous and fastest-growing internet market. But the ramifications beyond page B1 of the Wall Street Journal are far more severe.

Access to information is a fundamental pillar of human rights. Through forcing Google out, China is now ostentatiously and abhorrently a symbol of prosperity first, society later. With systematic blackouts throughout politically-tumultuous regions of the nation, with millions upon millions of citizens denied even basic access to the internet and with what little information was open and debatable now forced to leave town, China has become a nation under a heavy veil of repression.

There was really no other option for those at Google. EE Times’ Dylan McGrath wrote that “…for Google to tuck its tail between its legs and continue to abide by Chinese government censorship policies could not be construed as anything but evil“.

Google’s closure in China would leave the internet-which has about 400 million users-more than any other country in the world, almost completely dominated by local companies, companies which have no choice but to adhere to Chinese law and accept the heavy censorship as to the disclosure of information.

Economically, “the danger for the Chinese internet scene is that it becomes a less competitive place“, said Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of Danwei.org, a site about the media and the internet in China.

In this age of geopolitical assertiveness from the rising China, we note that human rights have become less and less relevant even in discussing the nation’s ongoing affairs. It is truly a travesty that not only will atrocities to basic rights in China be pigeonholed in the wayside, they will now not even be able to be found at all.