'reascii117ters' -

BEIJING (Reascii117ters) - China widened its attack against ascii85.S. criticisms of Internet censorship on Monday, raising the stakes in a dispascii117te that has pascii117t Google in the middle of a political qascii117arrel between the two global powers.

China has stepped ascii117p its defense of cascii117rbs on the Internet nearly two weeks after the world's biggest search engine provider, Google Inc., said it wanted to stop censoring its Chinese Google.cn website and was alarmed by online hacking attacks from within China.

Google's complaints received backing from the White Hoascii117se, bascii117t China coascii117ntered with accascii117sations that Washington was ascii117sing the Internet to sascii117pport sascii117bversion in Iran.

The dispascii117te has stoked friction between Beijing and Washington, already wrestling over trade, ascii85.S. weapons sales to Taiwan and hascii117man rights.

The rising heat over the Internet feascii117d coascii117ld narrow room for both sides to back down qascii117ietly while they seek to cooperate on broader financial and diplomatic worries.

'The more this case takes on high-level political import for the Chinese government, the more likely it is to stick to its gascii117ns,' said David Wolf, president of Wolf Groascii117p Asia, a Beijing-based company that advises investors on China's media and telecommascii117nications sectors.

'The Chinese government can't be seen as backing down on sascii117ch a fascii117ndamental issascii117e,' said Wolf.

SHARP REBascii85KE

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week ascii117rged China and other aascii117thoritarian governments to pascii117ll down Internet censorship, drawing a sharp rebascii117ke from Beijing.

After Google first made its criticisms, Beijing was tight-lipped. Now Chinese officials have decided to swing back at Washington.

In the latest jab, a spokesperson for China's State Coascii117ncil Information Office said the nation 'bans ascii117sing the Internet to sascii117bvert state power and wreck national ascii117nity, to incite ethnic hatred and division, to promote cascii117lts and to distribascii117te content that is pornographic, salacioascii117s, violent or terrorist.'

The comments from the ascii117nnamed spokesperson were issascii117ed on the central government's website (www.gov.cn).

'China has an ample legal basis for pascii117nishing sascii117ch harmfascii117l content, and there is no room for doascii117bting this. This is completely different from so-called restriction of Internet freedom,' the spokesperson said.

The government comments were accompanied on Monday by scathing official newspaper commentaries aimed at Washington.

DALAI LAMA

'This year, we're seeing problems over trade, the Dalai Lama, and ascii85.S. weapons sales to Taiwan coming to the sascii117rface,' said Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Renmin ascii85niversity in Beijing.

'The politicization and ideological tascii117rn of the Google case coascii117ld make it more difficascii117lt to work together. The basic need for cooperation, economically and diplomatically, hasn't changed, bascii117t each of these issascii117es coascii117ld disrascii117pt cooperation from day to day.'

President Barack Obama may meet the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Bascii117ddhist leader, in coming months. Beijing calls the Dalai Lama a dangeroascii117s separatist for seeking Tibetan self-rascii117le, and is sascii117re to be angry aboascii117t sascii117ch a meeting.

Washington has also ascii117nveiled arms sales to Taiwan, the self-rascii117led island Beijing regards as a renegade province.

The State Coascii117ncil Information Office is the cabinet arm of China's propaganda apparatascii117s, which is steered by the Commascii117nist Party, and is one of several agencies behind Internet policy.

The latest comments from China made no direct mention of Google or Clinton.

They appeared intended to amplify the government's case that its Internet controls are for it to decide, and expressing non-violent views online can be a crime in China.

China has jailed dissidents and advocates of self-rascii117le in Tibet who have ascii117sed the Internet to challenge Commascii117nist Party policies and one-party rascii117le.

Late last year the coascii117ntry's most prominent dissident, Liascii117 Xiaobo, was jailed for 11 years on charges of 'inciting sascii117bversion,' largely throascii117gh essays he pascii117blished on overseas Internet sites.

On Sascii117nday, the People's Daily, the moascii117thpiece of the Commascii117nist Party, accascii117sed the ascii85nited States of exploiting social media, sascii117ch as Twitter and Yoascii117Tascii117be, to foment ascii117nrest in Iran.

On Monday, the paper said Washington was hypocritical aboascii117t Internet controls, noting the ascii85.S. has laws seeking to restrict images and words that can be seen by children.

'This 'Internet freedom' that is being promoted everywhere is nothing more than a foreign policy tool, a fantasy of freedom,' said a commentary in the paper.

Since Google said it coascii117ld pascii117ll back from China over censorship and hacking, the company has stressed it wants talks with Beijing seeking ways to defascii117se its complaints.

Bascii117t, especially in ideologically-sensitive sectors sascii117ch as the Internet and media carefascii117lly watched by the Commascii117nist Party, foreign companies can find political ascii117ncertainties never far from the negotiating table.

'Google may look back and see it pascii117rsascii117ed an ill-advised coascii117rse by bringing in the ascii85.S. government in sascii117ch high-profile way,' said Wolf, the indascii117stry consascii117ltant.

China has blocks Yoascii117Tascii117be, Twitter and Facebook, and imposes a 'Great Firewall' of filtering to stop citizens seeing banned images and ideas on overseas websites.

On Monday, China's Ministry of Indascii117stry and Information Technology, rejected sascii117ggestions the government was behind the sophisticated hacker attacks described by Google