China rebuffs mounting US web criticisms

CHINA has rejected criticism of its internet censorship by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying it harmed relations as a row over Google’s threat to leave the Chinese market escalated.

Clinton had urged China on Thursday to conduct a thorough probe into cyberattacks on Google and other US companies, and lamented what she said was Beijing’s increasing efforts to control what its 384 million web users can see.

“We firmly oppose such words and deeds, which go against the facts and are harmful to China-US relations,” foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said, in China’s strongest comments since the Google dispute erupted. “We urge the United States to respect facts and stop using the so-called internet freedom issue to criticise China unreasonably,” he said in a statement posted on the ministry website. In a major policy speech on internet freedom in Washington, Clinton reiterated US support for “a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas”.

She called on China “to conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions” revealed by Google and for “its results to be transparent”.

The two sides have become locked in a spiralling dispute over Chinese web controls sparked by internet giant Google’s announcement last week it would no longer obey China’s censorship rules and might pull out of the country. Google said the decision was made after it suffered cyberattacks the company believes originated in China and appeared aimed at cracking the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

China has declined to comment on a possible investigation of the attacks. Until yesterday, Beijing had generally held fire, defending its censorship and saying foreign firms must comply but refraining from hitting back at mounting US criticism. China is believed to employ thousands of people in a vast system of internet censorship, dubbed the ‘Great Firewall of China’.