China tells Web companies to obey controls

BEIJING — In China's first official response to Google's threat to leave the country, the government Thursday said foreign Internet companies are welcome but must obey the law and gave no hint of a possible compromise over Web censorship.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, without mentioning Google by name, said Beijing prohibits e-mail hacking, another reason cited by Google for possibly shutting down its China operation. She was responding to questions about Google at a regular ministry briefing.

"China's Internet is open," Jiang said. "China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law."

Google said Tuesday it would stop censoring search results in China and might shut down its China-based Google.cn site, citing hacking attacks against its e-mail service.

Jiang gave no indication whether the government had talked with Google. The state Xinhua News Agency said earlier officials were seeking more information about its announcement.

Also Thursday, the ruling Communist Party's main newspaper warned companies to obey government controls as Web users visited Google's Beijing offices for a second day to leave flowers and notes expressing support for the company.

The newspaper Peoples Daily, citing a Cabinet official's comments in November, said companies must help the government keep the Internet safe and fight online pornography and cyber attacks.

Web companies must abide by "propaganda discipline," the official, Wang Chen, was quoted as saying. "Companies have to concretely increase the ability of Internet media to guide public opinion in order to uphold Internet safety."

Outside the Google offices, some visitors poured small glasses of liquor, a Chinese funeral ritual.

One man left a copy of Peoples Daily, which he said represented the tightly controlled state media that China's public would be left with if Google pulls out and censorship continues. Notes posted on Chinese Web sites praised Google as an information source and some called on the government to find a compromise.

Employees entered and left Google's building but declined to talk to reporters.

Google said Tuesday it might shut down its China-based Google.cn site over concerns about censorship and after hacking attempts on its e-mail service from within China. The company's U.S. site has a Chinese-language section but Beijing's filters make that slow and difficult to access from China.