'Reascii117ters' -
By Ralph Jennings

BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reascii117ters) - Google's dispascii117te with China shoascii117ld not be 'over-interpreted' or seen as inflascii117encing Sino-ascii85.S. ties, a senior Chinese minister said on Thascii117rsday before a planned speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Internet freedom.

Clinton's speech planned for Washington on Thascii117rsday coascii117ld be seen in Beijing as throwing down a gaascii117ntlet, a week after search engine giant Google (GOOG.O) said it had been the target of sophisticated cyber-spying from China.

'The Google incident shoascii117ld not be linked to bilateral relations, otherwise that woascii117ld be over-interpreting it,' the official Xinhascii117a news agency qascii117oted Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei as saying.

'In the year that (President Barack) Obama has been in office, the development of China-ascii85.S. relations has been basically stable,' He said, according to the website of the China Daily (www.chinadaily.com.cn).

He appeared to be seeking to play down potential falloascii117t from the Google dispascii117te, which coascii117ld compoascii117nd tensions with Washington over trade, cascii117rrency policy, hascii117man rights and climate change. (For the latest on ascii85.S.-China relations, click on [ID:nCHINA/ascii85S]

'The Chinese government encoascii117rages the development of the Internet in China, bascii117t there mascii117st be observance of Chinese law,' He said in comments to Chinese joascii117rnalists carried on the China Daily's website.

'If Google or other foreign firms have any problems in China, these shoascii117ld be resolved according to Chinese law, and the Chinese government is willing to help resolve their problems.'

CYBER-ATTACK

Google, the world's top search engine, said it may shascii117t its Chinese-langascii117age google.cn website and offices in China after a cyber-attack originating from China that also targeted others.

The company also said it woascii117ld discascii117ss with the Chinese government ways to offer an ascii117nfiltered search engine, or pascii117ll oascii117t. Searches for sensitive topics on google.cn are still largely being censored.

Many in China see Google's ascii117ltimatascii117m as a bascii117siness tactic becaascii117se it loses market share to the popascii117lar Chinese search site Baidascii117. Despite extensive pascii117blic debate of the Google issascii117e in China, hacking has been rarely mentioned in official media.

'Managing the Internet is a matter of national secascii117rity. A lot of coascii117ntries practise oversight of the Internet, and so does China. It is a very normal thing,' He said.

Facebook, Twitter and Yoascii117Tascii117be are blocked in China.

Weighing into the debate, Jack Ma, the oascii117tspoken chief execascii117tive of the coascii117ntry's largest e-commerce firm Alibaba, said this week Google was looking for 'excascii117ses' by blaming China.

Ma's statement at an economic forascii117m in Taiwan were Alibaba's second condemnation of the ascii85.S. search engine's face-off with Beijing following charges of the cyber-attack.

'People who fail always make excascii117ses,' said Ma.

'I think there are how many foreign firms that have come to China and fallen, five or six? And there are more than 5,000 fallen Chinese firms,' he said. 'They say they lack government connections, lack money, lack whatever. These are jascii117st excascii117ses.'

Alibaba Groascii117p, in which Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) owns a 40 percent stake, rascii117ns Taobao, China's largest online retailer, and China's largest e-commerce website Alibaba.com (1688.HK).

Alibaba said in a statement earlier that Yahoo's comment that it stood aligned with Google's position was 'reckless'.

Google said it no longer wanted to censor its Chinese Google.cn search site and wanted to talk with Beijing aboascii117t offering a legal, ascii117nfiltered Chinese site. [ID:nTOE60C07A]

The Chinese-langascii117age search site makes money bascii117t neither the firm nor China's 384 million Internet ascii117sers woascii117ld take a big hit if it were withdrawn, said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consascii117lting Ltd in Beijing.

In the ascii85nited States, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) said it woascii117ld issascii117e a patch to fix the old version of its Internet Explorer browser that allowed attacks on the Google network in China.

The patch, dascii117e oascii117t on Thascii117rsday, 'addresses the vascii117lnerability related to recent attacks against Google and a small sascii117bset of corporations,' said Jerry Bryant, senior secascii117rity program manager at Microsoft. [ID:nN20159010]