China Seeks To Limit Political Damage From Dispute With Google
Thursday Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said the dispute with Google should not be "overinterpreted," according to the state news agency Xinhua, in an apparent effort to play down the potential impact of the Google issue on U.S.-China relations.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to deliver a speech on Internet freedom later today in Washington, and Beijing apparently expects the speech to include criticism of its Internet policies.
Last week Google said it was considering shutting down its operations in China after the search engine giant said it uncovered evidence Chinese authorities might be hacking into Gmail accounts of human rights activists. Google also said it will no longer censor its results on Google.cn, as it originally agreed to when it launched operations in China four years ago, potentially setting up a confrontation with China's government.
Should Google pull out of China, the country will become more dependent on Baidu.com, a China-specific search engine that has a 63 percent market share in that country compared to Google's 33 percent, according to statistics from iResearch, an Internet consulting firm.
Tuesday the Chinese government seemed to push back against Google, saying foreign companies must obey the country's laws and traditions, according to a BBC News story.
But He's statements Thursday suggesting business and political issues are separate seemed designed to keep the Google dispute from damaging U.S.-China relations,
"The Google incident should not be linked to bilateral relations, otherwise that would be overinterpreting it," Xinhua quoted He in speaking to Chinese reporters, according to a Reuters story. "In the year that Obama has been in office, the development of China-U.S. relations has been basically stable," He said.
"If Google or other foreign firms have any problems in China, these should be resolved according to Chinese law, and the Chinese government is willing to help resolve their problems," He said.