Foreign and Military Affairs

Google case will not affect China-US relations

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-23 16:43

BEIJING - Google's withdrawal from the Chinese mainland will not affect China-US relations "unless someone politicizes the issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Tuesday.

Qin told a regular press conference the Google issue was a commercial matter and would not damage the image of China.

He said moves to tie the issue to the China-US relations were "making a fuss" and "overstating the issue."

The Chinese government encouraged and pushed for the openness of Internet and its management according to its laws and regulations, which was common practice in all countries, Qin said.

"What China is striving to prevent on the Internet is the flow of information that would pose a danger to national security and the interests of the society and the public," he said.

"Any foreign company operating in China must abide by Chinese laws and regulations," Qin said.

China would stick to the strategy of opening-up and the principle of mutual benefits, and welcome foreign entrepreneurs to invest and do business in China within the law.

"We will create a sound environment for them," he said.

Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said his company would "stop censoring" in a blog post at about 3 am Tuesday Beijing Time, more than two months after the company said it had been attacked by hackers operating in China and was reconsidering its approach to China.