Google threaten to leave China
Beijing called Thursday on the international community to cooperate in greater control of the internet, even as Google threatened to leave China after its computers were hacked from within the communist country.
“All countries should take active measures to enhance the efficiency of internet governance to avoid their own problems on the internet affecting other countries,” said Wang Chen, director of the Information Office of the State Council.
Google, the world’s most popular Internet search engine, recently said it had discovered a “sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China” and said it would no longer censor the results on its Chinese site.
The world’s leading search engine said it could be forced to leave China.
Wang urged internet media “to contribute to safe internet development, support national interests…, promote the economic and cultural development and meet the demands of a harmonious and stable society.”
The senior Chinese official, who never referred to Google in his comments, said as “a victim country of hacker attacks” China resolutely opposed hacking.
Meanwhile, Chinese Internet experts have expressed worry and doubt after Google’s announcement of plans to pull out of China, according to the People’s Daily online.
Sina.com.cn quoted Fang Xingdong, a Chinese Internet expert and the founder of Chinalabs.com and blogchina, as saying Google’s retreat from the Chinese market would be a loss for both domestic internet users and the local search engine market.
“If there is no competition in China’s search engine industry, Baidu (a Chinese search engine) cannot develop well in the future,” Fang said.
In a statement on Wednesday the State Council announced plans to connect the telecom network, TV and radio broadcasting and the Internet in the near future to boost the development of the information and cultural sectors.
The top Russian search engine, Yandex, closed its blog ranking late last year, saying it had been hijacked by radicals aiming to advance their own agendas. Many bloggers claimed the company was responding to pressure from the government, which they said wanted to restrict access to alternative points of view.
Yandex made its programming code available to anyone who wants to create his own blog rating.