Google's biggest search engine in the world on the Internet, has threatened to close its Chinese portal, Google.cn, and to withdraw from China, citing acts of censorship and piracy from Chinese territory.
The Obama administration has supported the criticisms made by Google. The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, called for Beijing to renounce censorship cons internet and to investigate the hacking. Some experts even say that these acts of piracy are organized by the Chinese authorities themselves.
People's Daily warned in its Tuesday January 26 edition that the dissension on the Internet may undermine broader relations with Washington, already strained by trade disputes, arms sales to Taiwan and the possibility of a meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama.
These statements and actions (the Americans) are in defiance of reality and affect the image of China, undermining the development of Sino-US relations stable and healthy," the People's Daily In an editorial on the Internet. "It is not difficult to see the shadow of the U.S. government behind the politicization of the Google case," the newspaper said.
On Monday, a senior Chinese official said Beijing had permitted himself the right to punish anyone who would use the Internet to challenge the ruling Communist Party, to break the national unity.
The spokesman of the Information Office of the State Council (government) indicated that the country banned the use of the Internet when it "subverts state power and sabotaging national unity, incites hatred and ethnic division, promotes and distributes a cult pornographic, obscene, violent or terrorist.
China blocks YouTube since March and Twitter since June. Facebook has not operated since early July. The country also uses a "great firewall" to discourage users from viewing content not permitted on sites abroad. (Source: News Trends Today, Jan 27, 20100.