China defends web rules after Google threat

China declared its internet "open" yesterday but defended censorship that has prompted web giant Google to threaten to pull out of the country, adding a potential new irritant in China-US relations.

But Google appeared to be winning the battle for hearts and minds, with Chinese online users flooding the web and visiting the company's Beijing offices to express support and urge the internet giant not to leave China.

"The Chinese government administers the internet according to law and we have explicit stipulations over what information and content can be spread over the internet," Foreign Ministry mouthpiece Jiang Yu told reporters.

Ms Jiang's comment marked China's most direct response yet after Google's shock announcement on Tuesday that it would stop bowing to Chinese internet censors and could pull out of the world's largest online population of 360 million users.

Google said the move was a protest against censorship and what it called "highly sophisticated" cyberattacks on its systems aimed at Chinese human rights activists and believed to have originated in China.

China employs a vast system of web censorship dubbed the "Great Firewall of China" that blocks content such as political dissent, pornography and other information viewed as objectionable.

Ms Jiang declared the country's internet "open" but declined to offer a detailed response to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call for China to explain the alleged cyberattacks.

"I believe if there are some appeals for that, (authorities) will investigate it," Ms Jiang said at a regular news briefing.

She refused to elaborate, and also refused to comment when asked repeatedly whether the purported attacks originated in China and were orchestrated by the government.

But state media said Chinese parliamentary leader Wu Bangguo told a group of visiting US Senators the two sides should "respect each other's core interests and properly handle sensitive affairs", without specifically mentioning Google.

On Wednesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed that the Obama administration had held talks with Google. While declining to offer details, he stressed the United States backed the "right to a free internet."

However, a top Chinese official said tight internet controls were needed, saying the nation's online environment faced "severe challenges" as it grew and became more central to the nation's economy.

Wang Chen, head of the central government's information office, said the nation must "strive to build a healthy, civilised, safe and orderly" internet environment, wording usually employed to justify censorship.