Beijing – Google (NASD: GOOG) must obey China’s
laws or "pay the consequences," the country’s minister of Industry
and Information Technology said on Friday, in the strongest words to date from
the government in its ongoing dispute with the Internet giant, the Associated
Press reported. "If you want to do something that disobeys Chinese law and
regulations, you are unfriendly, you are irresponsible and you will have to pay
the consequences," said IT minister Li Yizhong.
Google and China have reportedly been in talks in recent
weeks, after a hacking incident on Google’s servers thought to originate from China
prompted the company to stop censoring search results at the Chinese
government’s request — and to consider pulling out of the country entirely.
"You
cannot find evidence about who organizes such attacks. The Chinese government
has repeatedly opposed and deterred hacking attacks," Li told AP.
"Whether
they leave or not is up to them. But if they leave, China’s Internet market is still
going to develop."
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment for AP on the
state of the talks between the company and the Chinese government.
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(AP)
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(DMW previous coverage)
