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World|business|October 13, 2016 / 03:40 PM
Beijing says Facebook and Google are welcome back to China

AKIPRESS.COM - article-enter-comp Will Facebook and Google come back to China? The Chinese government says they can, as long as they “respect China’s laws”, according to Quartz.

Yesterday at a press conference held in preparation for the upcoming World Internet Conference, a Bloomberg reporter asked Ren Xianliang, deputy director of the Cyberspace Administration of China (which oversees internet governance) if the government would permit the two American internet giants to re-enter China. Both companies still have business-facing services in China, but Google effectively closed its consumer-facing search engine there in 2010, and authorities have blocked Facebook’s social network since 2009.

Ren replied: “China’s internet development has always maintained a policy of openness. As for foreign internet companies, as long as they respect China’s laws, don’t harm the interests of the country, and don’t harm the interests of consumers, we welcome them to enter China, where they can together share the benefits of China’s developing internet.”

By “China’s laws,” Ren is referring to the country’s strict censorship apparatus, which prevents internet users from seeking and spreading information considered critical of the Communist Party. Ren’s stance follows the party line. In 2010, when Google began mulling a withdrawal from China, foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said in a press conference that “China’s internet is open,” adding that the government “welcomes international internet corporations to do business in China in accordance with law.”

Some Chinese internet users were quick to criticize Ren’s comments. “I just want to ask – what kind of law are you asking them to abide by? The Chinese Constitution says that citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech and press,” wrote one commenter on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-esque social network. “So if you set a law to filter information and keywords, does that mean it violates the principle of the Constitution?”

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