China on Thursday insisted Google's threat to quit the country over censorship and cyber attacks should not be linked to Sino-US ties, seeking to play down a simmering row over Internet freedom.

The statement from Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was preparing to give a major Internet policy speech in Washington.

Last week, Google said it may shut down its Chinese search engine and possibly leave the country altogether over what it called a "highly sophisticated" attack by China-based hackers and over state censorship.
 

Washington has asked Beijing for an explanation of the attack, which Google said had hit its corporate infrastructure, and was likely aimed at gaining access to the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
 

"If Google has any problems in its business in China, these must be resolved according to Chinese law, and the Chinese government is willing to help resolve these problems," the vice foreign minister was quoted as saying by state media.
 

"The Google case should not be linked with relations between the two governments and countries; otherwise, it's an over-interpretation," He said.

Google not excepted
China had already said the incident would not affect Sino-US trade ties, but has vehemently defended its right to filter information available on the web and repeatedly told foreign firms they must obey its laws.
 

"Google is not an exception," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said on Tuesday.
 

The US Internet giant has taken a hit in the state press in recent days, with the English-language Global Times - run by the ruling Communist Party’s mouthpiece the People's Daily - lashing it in several commentaries.
 

"The world's top search engine put itself in an embarrassing spot by threatening to pull out of China," the paper said Thursday, noting Google could have avoided difficulties had it "really understood China and the Chinese".

The authorities in the world's most populous nation - which also has the biggest online community of 384 million users - regularly block content and websites they deem politically objectionable.
 

"The inability to build cultural bridges and failure to adapt to the culture in which the market operates can lead to conflict and clashes," it said.
 

It urged the nearly 700,000 Western companies operating in China to "adapt to the market and to the diversities of Chinese society", adding: "China cannot be a colony of Western values."
 

The paper was even more strident in its criticism of Google on Wednesday, hitting out at the "'revolving door' between big corporations and Washington" - suggesting Google had bought influence with the Obama administration.

Suspicious ties
"Given Washington's high pitched support for Google in its dispute with China, the Internet giant's close ties to the Obama administration has caught public attention and aroused more suspicion," the Global Times wrote.
 

"The price of the US government using Google for its politics can be very high for the number one search engine. The sooner Google realises that, the farther it will go in China."
 

Kurt Campbell, Clinton's top diplomat for east Asia, said Tuesday that the US and Chinese governments had had "multiple meetings" about Google and China and planned to have more in the coming days.
 

But Alec Ross, a top advisor to Clinton, on Wednesday insisted that the State Department was not the "foreign policy arm of Google".
 

Clinton is due on Thursday to deliver a speech on Internet freedom at a journalism museum in Washington.
 

Ross said she would "lay out a series of initiatives" but denied the address would solely focus on China.
 

"Even though China is very much grabbing the headlines today I think one of the things we need to recognise is the global perspective of this," he said. "Tomorrow's speech is not a speech about China."
 

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Ma said he would have no comment on Clinton’s speech until it was delivered.
 

Source: AFP