Chinese officials push back at Google

 

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Posted on 14 Jan 2010 at 11:15

Government officials from China have brushed off Google's threat to cease operations in the country following a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack" on its corporate infrastructure that originated from China.

Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that the country welcomed international enterprises to operate Internet services "in accordance with the law".

Yu pointed out that hacking and other forms of cyber attacks are illegal under Chinese law, but stopped short of saying whether the law applies to Chinese government agencies as well.

Wang Chen, director of the State Council Information Office, also weighed in on the debate, defending China's right to censor the Internet during a Q&A session with Chinese reporters. "Effective guidance of public opinion on the Internet is an important way of protecting the security of online information," he said.

Wang also said that cyber crime inside China had risen by 148 per cent in 2008 compared with the previous year. "China is a country being harmed by Internet hackers and is firmly opposed to hacking attacks," he said.

Although an official response to Google's new strategy in China hasn't been released yet, Wang's statements suggest that China is unlikely to change its policies on Internet censorship.

Google is still looking to work with the Chinese government, rather than against it, though. A senior company source told The Guardian that the search giant was "hopeful that they can accept that this is a new century, it's a new time. I don't think it's the Chinese government as a whole, but I think there are some left over elements of totalitarianism in China, be it in government or be it in hackers or what not. But those elements - it's time for them to go. It's time the Chinese people had unfettered access to information."

Author: Tim Smalley