BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- China urged the United States to respect facts and stop unreasonable accusations on China in the name of so-called Internet freedom.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu made the remarks on Friday when commenting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech.
Clinton on Thursday called for China to lift their restrictions on citizens' use of the Internet.
"The U.S. side had criticized China's policies on Internet administration, alluding that China restricts Internet freedom. We firmly oppose such words and deeds, which were against the facts and would harm the China-US relations," Ma said.
The spokesman introduced Internet development in China, saying China's Internet is open, and the country has witnessed the most active development of Internet in the world.
According to him, by the end of last year, the number of Chinese cyber citizens has reached 384 million with 3.68 million websites and 180 million blogs.
The Chinese constitution protects the citizens' freedom of speech, and it is a consistent policy of the Chinese government to promote the development of Internet, He said.
Ma added that China has its own domestic situation and cultural tradition, and it accords with the world's common practice that China administers the Internet according to its laws and policies.
Along with the U.S. accusations, the hacker attack is also a hot issue relevant to China recently, including the one related to the Google and another search engine, Baidu.com, who claimed to have suffered the worst attack on Jan. 12 since it was established.
"The Chinese laws forbid hacker attack and activities to infringe upon citizen's privacy in any form. China is one of the major victims of hacker attacks in the world," Ma said.
According to the Internet Society of China, the number of cyber attacks from abroad saw a year-on-year increase of 148 percent in 2008.
"China advocated to severely fight against hacking through international cooperation, so as to protect Internet safety and citizen's privacy," Ma said.
As for the China-U.S. relations, nevertheless, the spokesman highlighted the importance of cooperation.
He called on the United States to work with China to implement the consensus reached by leaders of the two countries on the development of bilateral relations, strengthen dialogue, communication and cooperation, respect each other's core interest and great concerns, handle disputes and sensitive issues appropriately, so as to maintain a healthy and stable development of the China-U.S. relations.
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