BEIJING — China’s Foreign Ministry sharply criticized Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Thursday call for broad Internet freedom, saying that the United States should “cease using so-called Internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China.”
Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on the ministry’s Web site that “the U.S. has criticized China’s policies to administer the Internet and insinuated that China restricts Internet freedom. We are firmly against the words and deeds contrary to the facts and harmful to China-U.S. relations.”
A Chinese newspaper also joined the criticism of Clinton, who gave her speech in the wake of Google’s declaration that it would stop censoring results on its Chinese-based search engine even if that meant losing its license after a cyberattack on its computers.
The Global Times said that the U.S. “campaign for uncensored and free flow of information on an unrestricted Internet is a disguised attempt to impose its value on other cultures in the name of democracy.”
Clinton said that freedom on the Internet is closely linked to other basic freedoms, including freedom of speech, worship and assembly. And she said the U.S. government would help fund and foster individuals and companies that help those in countries with restricted access find ways to circumvent obstacles.
