CHINA STUCK to its guns on its internet censorship policy yesterday, saying foreign web firms were welcome in China, but only if they obeyed the law.
In the government’s cautiously worded official responses, there was not a hint of compromise on lowering the Great Firewall of China, but China’s webizens remained defiantly supportive of Google’s threat to leave China over cyber attacks on human rights activists’ email accounts.
The exterior of China’s Google offices were becoming a focal point for public anger and disillusion.
Some visitors poured small glasses of liquor, a Chinese funeral ritual, while another left a copy of People’s Daily to represent the tightly controlled state media that China’s public would be left with if Google pulled out and censorship continued.
“Google is the true hero in this silent city,” said one note outside the building, in the west of the city.
The challenge to Beijing by the world’s biggest search engine is being closely monitored abroad, because it is the first time a major international company has dared to voice frustration at restrictive practices in the burgeoning Chinese market.
The Chinese government appears to be adopting a kind of holding position, reiterating the government line that foreign internet firms are welcome in China but that they must obey China’s rules.
“China’s internet is open,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a briefing. “China welcomes international internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law.”
Ms Yu declined to comment on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s repeated criticisms of China’s internet policy. Mrs Clinton is planning a major speech next week on internet freedom in the 21st century.
It remained unclear whether the Chinese government had yet spoken to Google about the matter.
Increasingly the Chinese Google debate is looking like a battle for the overall purpose of the internet.
In the West, the internet is generally seen as a free-for-all platform for all forms of communication, but Beijing sees the web as primarily a commercial tool, and it employs thousands of net nannies and filters to block access to material that it deems subversive or pornographic.
In an intriguing development, the English-language newspaper the Global Times, which is published by People’s Daily and generally follows government policy, warned that Google leaving China would be a “lose-lose” situation.
“Google is taking extreme measures, but it is reminding us that we should pay attention to the issue of the free flow of information.
“We have to advance with the times,” the article said.