China Economic Review
Charting China’s changing economic terrain · Since 1990
China denies Google hacking claims
January 28, 2010
The Google in China situation is complicated. Beijing has declared its willingness to cooperate with the international community to combat internet crimes.
A spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the "accusation that the Chinese government participated in a cyberattack, either in an explicit or inexplicit way, is groundless and aims to denigrate China."
In fact, the Chinese government wanted to "deepen cooperation with other countries" on internet security and "learn from their experiences to make the internet a better place."
But note carefully an official from the Information Office of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, defended the censorship of so-called "illegal and harmful online contents" as necessary to protect citizens and the government. He said it is "harmful" to allow online information that "incites subversion of state power, violence and terrorism or includes pornographic contents."
ABC News reported that the unnamed official said such censorship "has nothing to do with the claims of ‘restrictions on internet freedom.’" The ministry spokesman denied any government involvement in online attacks against Google Monday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on China and other authoritarian governments to lift restrictions on citizens’ access to cyber space in a major speech last week. China called Hilary Clinton’s comments as groundless and harmful to relations.
Now US Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson confirmed that American and Chinese officials have met in Washington and Beijing regarding the Google case. Nothing has been reported about this meeting although Beijing says Google’s Android system can be used without any restrictions as long as it conforms with the nation’s rules and regulations