Beijing seeks to limit Google fallout
China on Friday sought to portray Google’s threat to pull out of the country as a narrow commercial dispute rather than a pressing political issue.
In a low-key response – the first government statement on the issue to mention Google directly by name – Yao Jian, ministry of commerce spokesman, said the dispute would not affect broader Sino-US trade and economic relations.
This contrasted with a statement by Washington later on Friday that it would present Beijing with a formal diplomatic complaint in the coming days.
Mr Yao said his ministry had so far not received any formal notice that the US internet company would leave China.
“Foreign companies including Google should all follow international standards and respect local law and regulations and local culture and customs to shoulder social responsibility,” he said. But he added that China would try its best to create a sound investment environment.
Google’s announcement that there had been large cyberattacks out of China on it and other US companies has revived global debate about the security threat that China poses to western nations.
The Obama administration has given high-profile backing for Google’s stance. David Shear, US deputy assistant secretary for east Asian and Pacific affairs, met a Chinese diplomat in Washington on Thursday to seek an explanation for the cyberattacks, said the state department.
”The incident raises questions about both internet freedom and the security of the internet in China,” it said.
However, Beijing’s decision to address the issue through the commerce ministry seems intended to signal that it wants to limit the political fallout.
Mr Yao appealed to foreign investors to keep their confidence in the Chinese market, reminding them that the country has the world’s largest internet-using population.
The number of the country’s users soared by one-third over the past six months to 380m, the China Internet Network Information Centre said in its semiannual statistical report on Friday, a trend that will weigh heavily with most technology companies.
Microsoft said on Thursday it had no plans to pull out of China. ”I don’t understand how that helps anything. I don’t understand how that helps us and I don’t understand how that helps China,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive.
Google continued to censor its search results on its China site on Friday. Talks with the authorities have yet to start, but the company appears to have taken fresh security measures in China.
Employees at Google’s research centre in Beijing said they had been given the day off on Thursday. Two engineering employees said that on returning on Friday, they did not have the same access to internal systems as before.
Security experts have pointed to the risk that Google employees in China may have used their access to the company’s software to pass on security-relevant information to hackers.
The Chinese government’s response follows its standard strategy in dealing with disputes with the international business community.
Last month, when several international business associations accused Beijing of shutting foreign companies out of government contracts by demanding that they seek special certification, the government also sought to avoid an escalation.
Similarly, when the government infuriated foreign technology companies last year with a sudden demand that a Chinese-made filtering software should be installed on all PCs to be sold in the country, Beijing said it had not received any complaints and later blamed the move on bad communication.
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