国务院新闻办公室网络局负责人23日凌晨就谷歌公司宣布停止按照中国法律规定的对有害信息过滤,将搜索服务由中国内地转至香港发表谈话指出,外国公司在中国经营必须遵守中国法律。

负责人说,谷歌公司违背进入中国市场时作出的书面承诺,停止对搜索服务进行过滤,并就黑客攻击影射和指责中国,这是完全错误的。我们坚决反对将商业问题政治化,对谷歌公司的无理指责和做法表示不满和愤慨。

China: Google has violated promise

The State Council Information Office, says Google's discontinuing to censor results violates the written promise it made when it entered China and is totally wrong. The Information Office's remarks came when Google announced on Tuesday it stopped self-censoring its mainland-based search engine and moved Google.cn to its Hong Kong website.

Internet users on the Chinese mainland can still access google.cn, but are automatically re-directed to Google's Hong Kong server.

This comes after Google announced early Tuesday that it has stopped filtering information as is required by Chinese law.

The Chinese government immediately responded.

The State Council Information Office, which regulates China's Internet, called the move "totally wrong".

The office says Google has violated the promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and by blaming China for alleged hacker attacks. The Information Office says China is opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and expresses its discontent and indignation with Google for its unreasonable accusations and conduct.

The Information Office says the government talked to Google twice to try to resolve the standoff and suggested that China's laws requiring Web sites to censor themselves was non-negotiable. China will still adhere to the opening-up principle and welcome foreign companies wanting to invest in China's Internet Industry.

The Foreign Ministry has also responded.

Qin Gang said, "China manages the Internet according to the law and our stance on it is firm. This is also in line with international practice."

While the search engine has shifted to Hong Kong, Google.cn's map service and a free music portal remain in China. Research and sales divisions also remain, for the time being.

Google's Gmail e-mail service is still accessible from within China, as is its news page.