Hillary Clinton's call for Beijing to investigate Google cyber-attack claims could damage bilateral relations, China warns
Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies
US calls for greater internet freedom could damage bilateral ties, Chinawarned today as it hit back at Hillary Clinton's critical speech.
The US secretary of state yesterday portrayed tackling censorship as a new priority for American foreign policy and called on Beijing to conduct a full and open investigation of Google's claims of a China-originated cyber attack targeting the emails of human rights activists.
"The US has criticised China's policies to administer the internet and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom," said foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, in a statement published on the ministry's website. "This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations".
"We urge the United States to respect the facts and cease using so-called internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China".
The two countries face accumulating disputes over issues ranging from climate change to the Chinese currency – which the US believes is under-valued – to how to tackle Iran's nuclear programme.
But both have so far appeared keen to avoid raising tensions. China made little comment on the Google issue even when the US state department called for an explanation.
While Clinton's speech was unusually critical of China's policies, it was also cautious in tone. The US also appears to have held off from issuing a demarche – a formal request for a response to the Google claims – which it initially said would be issued early this week.
Ma's statement said each side should "appropriately handle rifts and sensitive issues, protecting the healthy and stable development of China-US relations".
Yesterday, the vice-foreign minister, He Yafei, warned of challenges facing US-China ties in comments prior to Clinton's speech.
"This year, China and the United States – especially the US – must both carefully handle the issues of weapons sales to Taiwan, the Dalai Lama, and trade frictions," he said in comments reported by the official China News Service. "If these few issues are poorly handled, there may be conflict and rifts in bilateral relations".
Niu Jun, an international studies expert at Peking University, told Reuters: "I think over the short haul [the Google issue] is going to go away because other problems that the US and China face are rather numerous".
"I think economic and trade issues are still more important. Both sides will find a positive solution through talks. But this is not necessarily just a simple commercial issue. I don't know what the solution will be. But it won't take a long time".
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