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Jan 14, 2010

China affirms Internet control

BEIJING - CHINA told companies to cooperate with state control of the Internet on Thursday, showing no sign of giving ground on censorship after US Internet giant Google threatened to quit the country. The case could exacerbate tensions between China and the United States, already at odds over the value of the yuan currency, trade disputes and climate change negotiations. It threw a spotlight on hacking and the Internet controls which have frustrated Google's business in China. Google, the world's top search engine, said on Tuesday it would not abide by censorship and may shut its Chinese-language google.cn website because of attacks from China on human rights activists using its Gmail service and on dozens of companies.

In a statement posted on the State Council Information Office website, cabinet spokesman Wang Chen warned against pornography, cyber-attacks, online fraud and 'rumours', saying that government and Internet media have a responsibility to shape public opinion. The statement said China itself was a victim of hacker attacks, and that Beijing resolutely opposed hacking. Mr Wang's comments, Beijing's first official reaction after Google threatened to quit China over cyber-attacks, gave no indication that China - which has the world's biggest number of Internet users at 360 million - would give ground. The statement made no direct mention of Google. The official China Daily described Google's threat as a 'strategy to put pressure on the Chinese government'. -- REUTERS