Google digs heels in over censorship in China

Eric Schmidt at the World Economic Forum [photo: Severin Nowacki]

Google's standoff in China grew even more pronounced last week after chief executive Eric Schmidt restated the web giant's opposition to internet censorship, according to a Bloomberg report.

Schmidt said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday that, although the web giant is still complying with Chinese law in censoring search results on Google.cn, in a "reasonably short time from now we will be making some changes there".

"We love what China is doing as a country and its growth," Schmidt is reported as saying. "We just don't like the censorship. We hope to apply some negotiation or pressure to make things better for the Chinese people."

Google shocked the tech world earlier this month by threatening to pull out of China after discovering that hackers it believed originated in the country had tried to infiltrate its systems to monitor the email accounts of human rights activists.

Although Schmidt reportedly added that the firm had already "made a strong statement that we wish to remain in China", the chances of that happening are slim, given the Chinese government's hard line on censorship.

"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. Google is no exception," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said last week.