BEIJING — In China’s first official response to Google’s threat to leave the country, the government Thursday said foreign Internet companies are welcome but must obey the law. It gave no hint of a possible compromise over Web censorship.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, without mentioning Google by name, said Beijing prohibits e-mail hacking, another issue cited by the company. She was responding to questions about Google at a regular ministry briefing.
“China’s Internet is open,” Jiang said. “China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law.”
Google Inc. said Tuesday it would stop censoring search results in China and might shut down its China-based site, citing attempts to break into human-rights activists’ accounts on its Gmail service.
Jiang gave no indication whether the government had talked with Google. The state Xinhua News Agency said earlier that officials were seeking more information about Google’s announcement.
The main Communist Party newspaper warned companies to obey government controls as Web users visited Google’s Beijing offices for a second day to leave flowers and notes expressing support for the company.
Peoples Daily, citing a Cabinet official’s comments in November, said companies must help the government keep the Internet safe and fight online pornography and cyberattacks.
Outside the Google offices, some visitors poured small glasses of liquor, a Chinese funeral ritual.
One man left a copy of Peoples Daily, which he said represented the tightly controlled state media that China’s public would be left with if Google pulls out and censorship continues.
“Google is the true hero in this silent city,” said a note left outside the building in the capital’s Haidian technology district. Referring to the government Web filter, popularly known as the “Great Firewall,” another note said, “The tallest walls cannot divide people’s sentiments. Google: Bye; let’s meet on the other side of the wall.”
Employees entered and left the building but declined to talk to reporters.
Google’s main U.S. site has a Chinese-language section, but Beijing’s filters make that slow and difficult to access from China.
