Washington: Observing that China needs to
explain about internet freedom, the Obama Administration on Friday
said it would serve a formal demarche to the Chinese
Government over the spat with Google.
The internet search engine has alleged Chinese attempts
to "limit free speech on the Web", and threatened to stop
cooperating with Chinese internet censorship and consider
shutting down its operations in China.
"We need to hear now from the Chinese," White House Press
Secretary Robert Gibbs said.
"We are anxious to hear from them. I think Google will
keep us apprised on their next steps as it relates to China as
well," he said.
"We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese
Government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days,
probably early next week," the Assistant Secretary of State
for Public Affairs, P J Crowley, said.
"It will express our concern for this incident and
request information from China as to an explanation of how it
happened and what they plan to do about it," Crowley said.
The State Department official said the US will continue
to talk to China on this issue.
"It touches on things that are very important to us:
Internet freedom, network security and human rights," he said.
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
said this incident raises serious questions, and the US will
continue to seek answers from China.
On Thursday, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in East
and Asia Pacific, State Department, David Shear, met the
Deputy Chinese Ambassador today to raise the issue with him.
"We have had a discussion today here in Washington with
officials from the Embassy, where we raised the issue,"
Crowley said.
Meanwhile several US lawmakers came out in support of
Google.
Howard Berman, Chairman of the powerful House Committee
on Foreign Affairs, said his committee is considering the
matter of Internet freedom.
"We have sought information from US companies, many of
which are based in this area of California, on the Global
Network Initiative, which advocates that companies adopt
corporate responsibility guidelines and collaborate with human
rights NGOs to push back on Internet-repressive regimes`
demands," Berman said in a statement.
"We sought this information at the end of last year and
are currently evaluating their responses. We will continue to
be engaged in the issue," he said.
PTI
