China Wants to Keep the Google Issue out of the Political Arena

Google's public fallout with China is still a matter of hot debate and both parties seem reluctant to take a definitive stance. Google's decision to stop censoring results on Google.cn may seem drastic, but the tone of the post is still a bit subdued and leaves the door open to negotiations. Chinese officials haven't made any official statements decrying the move, as is the norm, but have stayed mostly quiet or tried to spin it as a business decision and a disagreement between the company and the government's policies.

One of the few comments on the matter from a high ranking politician came yesterday when Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said that the issue should be dragged into the political arena and shouldn't affect diplomatic relations between the countries. He also said that any problems that Google had with the local laws or policies should be discussed by Google with the authorities which were willing to listen and help solve any of the issues.

The comments, carried by state-run Chinese news agencies, came just before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was getting ready to make an important speech concerning Internet policies in Washington. She was expected to touch on the Google - China issue.

However, even if the Chinese authorities seem willing to negotiate and have taken an uncharacteristically soft approach to the matter, they seem rather strict on the main issue, the censorship of several touchy subjects for the Chinese government online. Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that Google was welcomed to operate in China as long as it followed local laws.

“Foreign enterprises in China need to adhere to China’s laws and regulations, respect the interests of the general public and cultural traditions, and shoulder corresponding responsibilities,” Ma said. This translates to a clear stance on the issue, China is not willing to dial down its requests that companies self-regulate their online operations to keep out unwanted material. Coupled with Google's own clear decision to stop all online censorship, the future of Google.cn seems bleak. The two parties are holding talks at the moment on the issue.