A senior official at the Chinese state council information office announced that the country welcomes closer ties with other countries to develop China's growing digital media sector, but also warned that foreigners should not use “Internet issues” tamper with the country's “internal affairs,” the Guardian reported last week.

Cai Mingzhao, a vice minister with the information office, explained China's digital media policy to a roundtable discussion held at Reuters' London offices Thursday.

“(We are) willing to draw useful lessons from other countries to improve ways of building and regulating the internet,” he said, according to the Guardian. “Any attempt to use internet issues to interfere in China's internal affairs is definitely opposed.”

Mingzhao said in his keynote speech that misunderstandings and a “lack of knowledge” of Chinese government policies are to blame for criticism of China's Internet policies, stating that “reasons behind these grievances might be quite complex,” the Guardian reported.

The Chinese government is trying to improve its “news releasing mechanism,” as officials understand that news, entertainment and video games are becoming increasingly popular online activities in China, he said. The balancing act between these activities and remaining in control of pornography, spam, hackers, etc., can be partially solved through forms of “professional Internet institutes,” such as the Internet Watch Foundation, he said, according to the Guardian.