I could see that being deleterious to our access to markets in Africa long term. If the Chinese are perfectly willing to just "throw money at the problem", and we take the position of "standing on principle", well it isn't hard to see who the Africans will be doing most of their business with(1). Africa will be very important in the future as a market. If I'm a US policymaker, and PARTICULARLY if I'm a FRENCH policymaker, I have to think that I wouldn't cede access to that territory so casually. Especially not over something as trivial as them wanting Google to pay routing fees. That sounds, to me, like something that can be worked out. The complication, of course, are Chinese telecoms that are there, money in hand, perfectly contented to pay those fees.
Anyway... that's just one drawback I can think up off the top of my head. Arguably, the most important one long term. But there are others. Some probably far more important in the short to medium term.
(1 - I realize that the Africans MAY ALREADY be doing most of their business with China. I only used future tense because I don't KNOW that they already do most of their business with China.)
