As a side benefit China has fostered a large homegrown internet industry which many other countries lack. Services like Baidu and Sina Weibo are more than acceptable. Europe is more than capable of doing the same and hopefully with less censorship.
You're touching on something here. What you're saying is that Google = American government [1]. With the rise of open fascism in the US, the merging of strategic corporations (mostly the technology, entertainment, and banking monopolies) with government interests is become more and more obvious - and scary for that matter.
As a side non-benefit of being protected from international services, China's homegrown internet industry is unable to innovate and compete outside of China, where their international competition has no such disadvantage. Services like Baidu and Sina Weibo are just acceptable local copies of successful international services. Europe is capable of becoming like China, but would be crazy to go down that route.
When choosing whether you want the American government to have some monitoring power over you or the Chinese government, the answer is beyond obvious [1].
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-education_through_labour