China made clear yesterday that it would ignore an ultimatum from Google to relax internet censorship, and reminded all companies that they must abide strictly by state controls of the country’s cyberspace.
The tough tone was set by the Foreign Ministry, taking refuge behind the fig leaf that any controls are against pornography and to protect people from evil influences.
Jiang Yu, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, was the first Chinese official to address the Google issue since the search engine said on Tuesday that it would close its China service if it was not allowed to offer unfettered internet access.
“China’s internet is open,” she said. “China welcomes international internet enterprises to conduct business according to law.” This was tantamount to a rebuff to Google, even before the company begins what could be short-lived negotiations with Chinese media authorities.
The State Council Information Office took a harder line. Its statement filled half a page in the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, and signalled that Beijing had already decided that its 360 million internet users may have to manage without the world’s most popular search engine.
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It said: “Our country is at a crucial stage of reform and development and this is a period of marked social conflicts. Properly guiding internet opinion is a major measure for protecting internet information security.”
Google has pledged to close its Chinese Google.cn service if censorship is not lifted after it reported cyber attacks through its systems against human rights activists and about 20 companies, including Google itself, originating from China.
It emerged yesterday that Yahoo!, which operates one of the world’s most-used search engines and e-mail services, may have been one of the companies that was attacked.
A Yahoo! spokesman said: “Yahoo! condemns all cyber attacks regardless of origin or purpose.” However, Adobe, another large technology company, revealed that it had been the victim of a cyber attack in a “sophisticated, co-ordinated” effort.
Google.cn continued to operate normally yesterday as Chinese internet users began to take sides in the feud. Many dismissed Google’s decision as sour grapes over its failure to consolidate its position in the market, which market research companies estimate at 15 to 30 per cent, compared with 60 to 70 per cent for the home-grown search engine Baidu. Investors are betting that Baidu will be the main beneficiary if Google goes through with its threat. New York-listed shares in the company were at a record high yesterday, up more than 5 per cent in afternoon trading after closing up 12 per cent on Wednesday.
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Others mourned what they believed would be Google’s imminent disappearance. Users left flowers and messages outside the company’s Beijing offices, mounted a candlelight vigil despite a bitter winter freeze and poured small glasses of liquor — a funeral rite in China.
Lu Benfu, an internet economist, said: “It will be a lose-lose situation for the whole industry.”
Teng Biao, a law professor and human rights lawyer, who was the victim of a cyber attack on his Gmail account, said: “Google leaving China makes people sad, but accepting censorship to stay in China and abandoning its ‘Don’t Be Evil’ principle is more than just sad.”