China's online controversy

War of words

With Google threatening to pull out of China amid complaints about cyber attacks on its systems and the US criticising the country's censorship laws, China's online dealings have never been more controversial, with a war of words threatening to damage ties between the two superpowers.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said the US should "respect the facts" and stop making "groundless accusations against China" after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for China to left all their online regulations. She also urged Beijing to investigate Google's claims that were being attacked from China-based hackers.

"The US has criticised China's policies to administer the internet, and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom," Ma said in a statement. "This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations."

He was responding to Secratary Clinton's comments in Washington were she stated that there had been a "source of tremendous progress" in China but that any country which restricted free access to information risked "walling themselves off from the progress of the next century".

Her calls to China to investigate Google's claims of cyber attacks comes after hackers had tried to infiltrate its software coding and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, in a "highly sophisticated" attack earlier this month that originated from China.

The attacks have shocked online browsers revealing security holes in the likes of Internet Explorer, however Microsoft has since released a patch to improve the browser's defences.

Controlling the web

China has a long history of trying to control the flow of information on the web. In 2008, the Chinese government tried to introduce a censorship software called Green Dam, that was to be installed on all PCs sold in the country. It turned out to be a massive failure with the proposal being widely condemned by the online community and heavy lobbying by manufacturers.

Currently, the country has a E-population of 340 million and controlling the activity of the large number of users has been a constant problem for the Chinese government. They have also tried restricted what can be accessed via Google.

When the web giant launched google.cn in 2006, it agreed to censor some search results - such as the 1989 Tienanmen Square protests, Tibetan independence or Falun Gong - as required by the Chinese government.

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