China: Internet cos. must obey its laws

AP via Yahoo! ^ | Thursday, June 8, 2006 | AP

[Momaw Nadon]

BEIJING - China welcomes foreign Internet companies working in China, but they must respect and abide by the country's laws, including those on expression, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The comments by ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao followed remarks Tuesday by Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledging the Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands.

Liu said China took a positive attitude toward working with companies such as Google, but any cooperation must exist "within a framework of law," and that Beijing hoped firms would abide by China's regulations.

Google's Brin said the Internet company had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country.

Google's China-approved Web service omits politically sensitive information that might be retrieved during Internet searches, such as details about the June 1989 suppression of political unrest in Tiananmen Square. Its agreement with China has provoked considerable criticism from human rights groups.

[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[lovecraft]

Google should do well over there, they apparently don't have that little hangup about suppressing free speech.

[rovenstinez]

So the GOOGLE people bowed to the FREEDOM of Expression...WHat? i THOUGHT that was what Google was all about, cowards they must be...slobs.just like the Chinese Gov't

[Momaw Nadon]

Google's Brin said the Internet company had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country.

[Still Thinking]

Moral right and wrong is a separate issue from legality but must also be considered. Not everything that is legally mandated is right and not everything legally proscribed is wrong.

For example Jesus said "Pay unto Caesar things that are Caesar's but pay unto God things that are God's."

[m1-lightning]

I read somewhere that Google said they were going to be withdrawing from China if they didn't stop censorship. All I could find was this: Google Withdrawal?

[G. Stolyarov II]

"Google's Brin said the Internet company had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country."

This is important: it shows that Google itself is not to blame for the censorship; the Chinese government is. A peaceful corporation has no choice but to comply with the wishes of men with guns - especially when the men with guns can inflict severe losses on the corporation. Internet companies are in an unfortunate position here, and advocates of free expression ought to understand the companies' blamelessness while *still* trying to get through the censorship barriers and counteract the *Chinese government's* efforts.

I am
G. Stolyarov II
http://www.zhonghuarising.com