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The standoff between Google and the Chinese government took another turn this weekend, with state officials saying that the search giant had not come forward with a formal complaint about the hacking attacks that prompted it to threaten to shutter its operations in the country.
The state-run news agency Xinhua and newspaper China Daily both reported that Miao Wei, the vice minister of the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), claimed that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) hadn't reported the attacks to state authorities or sought negotiations regarding China's Internet censorship rules. In January, Google said it would pull out of China if the government continued to block certain Web sites, claiming that a wave of attacks emanating from that country had targeted its corporate infrastructure and attempted to access the Gmail accounts of human rights advocates.
"We have yet to have any direct contacts or negotiations with them on this topic," Miao told China Daily.
"If Google decides to continue its business in China and abides by China's laws, it's welcome to stay," he said, adding that if the company decides to pull out of the country, "it must go through certain procedures according to the law."
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is not in talks with Google about the company's threat to stop filtering its search results. The ministry said it did not receive any requests from Google for negotiations, state news agency Xinhua reports citing vice minister Miao Wei. Media earlier reported Google was in talks with the ministry following comments from minister Li Yizhong on the sidelines of China's annual parliament. In January this year, Google announced it would stop censoring search results on google.cn and that it was considering pulling out of the country altogether.
China Says Google Never Filed Complaint in Hacking Case
