Chinese government: 'No exception' for Google

Posted by Erina Lin on January 19, 2010 at 2:09 PM

Following Google's announcement last week that it may leave China, the Chinese government has fired back, calling Google's action a "corporate maneuver," paidContent reported.

According to a statement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, "there is no exception for Google" in observing China's laws and shouldering its social responsibilities, China Daily, a state-run publication, reported. "Foreign companies in China should respect the laws and regulations, respect the public interest of Chinese people and China's culture and customs and shoulder due social responsibilities."

However, Google calls China's laws "attempts ... to further limit free speech on the web," David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer of Google, stated in a Google blog post last week.

Ma stated that China's Internet is open, and will keep on creating a favourable investment environment for foreign businesses, including Internet companies, and to protect their legitimate rights.

Another China Daily in-house editorial stated that the case is "purely business in nature and it should have nothing to do with political ideology."

"The case provides some Westerners, who are biased against China's political system; with an opportunity to point their fingers at the Chinese government... they grab any opportunity to do so."

On the other hand, according to a post by John Liu, Vice President of Google, and Boon-Lock Yeo, on its own Chinese-language blog, Google China employees were currently working "as usual" in their Beijing offices.

"There were number of rumours in the past few days stating that Google has already shut down its China office. Some rumours stated Google China employees had been notified to leave their jobs in the near future. These rumours are not true," the post stated.

"Although Google had recently announced that it would negotiate with the Chinese government in the coming weeks, our employees in China were still working hard to provide the best products and services for our clients as usual," it said.

Meanwhile, the Internet giant has decided to postpone the launch of two Android smartphones in China, CNet reported today.

The company told Dow Jones Newswire that it has halted the Chinese debut of two mobile phones, which were set to hit the market on Wednesday.