China standing firm on web censorship laws

IN China’s first official response to Google’s threat to leave the country, the government yesterday said foreign internet companies are welcome but must obey the law and gave no hint of a possible compromise over web censorship.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, without mentioning Google by name, said Beijing prohibits email hacking, another issue cited by the company. She was responding to questions about Google at a regular ministry briefing.

“China’s internet is open,” Jiang said.

“China welcomes international internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law.”

Google Inc said on Tuesday it would stop censoring search results in China and might shut down its China-based Google.cn site, citing attempts to break into accounts on its gmail service used by human rights activists. Jiang gave no indication whether the government had talked with Google. The state Xinhua News Agency said earlier officials were seeking more information about its announcement.

The main Communist Party newspaper warned companies to obey government controls as web users visited Google’s Beijing offices for a second day to leave flowers and notes expressing support for the company.

Peoples Daily, citing a cabinet official’s comments in November, said companies must help the government keep the internet safe and fight online pornography and cyberattacks.

Web companies must abide by “propaganda discipline”, the official, Wang Chen, was quoted as saying. “Companies have to concretely increase the ability of internet media to guide public opinion in order to uphold internet safety.”

Also yesterday, a law professor and human rights lawyer, Teng Biao, wrote on his blog that someone broke into his gmail account and forwarded email to another account. Teng said he did not know whether he was one of two Chinese activists mentioned by Google as hacking targets.

Another Beijing human rights lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, says his gmail account was hacked in November and important materials taken, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group announced. Jiang has represented Tibetan activists and advised people with AIDS who are seeking government help.