China tells Google to obey laws or face consequences
Hardening its stance, China on Friday said that world's leading search engine Google must obey its rules or ''face the consequences'' giving no indication whether it was ready to reach a compromise in the dispute over hacking.
It said the US internet company was welcome to stay and expand its business in China but at the same time it will have to face the consequence if it insists on doing things that violates China's laws and regulations.
"It is irresponsible and unfriendly if Google insists in doing something that goes against China's laws and regulations, and it will have to bear the consequence for doing so," said Li Yizhong, Chinese Minister of Industry and Information technology.
"Whether to withdraw from China or continue to stay is up to them," Yizhong told a press conference called to give details of China's talks with the company.
The Chinese top internet regulator's comments came a day after Google asserted that it was firm in its stance not to allow censorship of its web content in China.
"We are currently reviewing our business operations in China as we no longer feel comfortable censoring our search results in that country," Nicole Wong, Vice President of Google had said to an US Congressional committee.
"If Google decides to stay in China, we welcome and it will help boost the development of the country's Internet industry," Yizhong said.
"The company is welcome to expand its business and market share in the country. If it decides to quit, we will follow our procedures," Yizhong said, adding that Google's departure, will have no major influence on China's Internet market, which will continue its fast expansion momentum.
Google entered China in 2007 and now accounts for more than 30 per cent of the country's search engine market, according to the minister.
"I hope Google can abide by China's laws and regulations," official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.
He said China's Internet environment is open and administered in line with the country's laws.
"Internet administration is not a special case in China as all countries regulate networks according to their own laws."
The Google official told US Law makers yesterday that it was firm in its decision to "stop censoring our search results for China" and that it was "prepared" to leave the country if that was the option.
Restrictions on Google has become one of the main contentious issues between US and China. Washington has been insisting that China should liberalise the internet environment and stop screening the content of Google, which alleged attempts were made to screen the e-mail content, especially of the dissidents.
