Google (GOOG) Warned By Chinese Minister

The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese government has made its toughest statement yet on Google, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) future in the country.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Li Yizhong, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said, “I hope Google can respect Chinese rules and regulations. If you insist on taking this action that violates Chinese laws, I repeat: you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and you yourself will have to bear the consequences,” responding to a question asked by a reporter on how China would react if Google stopped censoring its website in the country.

On January 12, Google had said that it would stop following the government guidelines to filter certain content from results of its Chinese search engine. The company has been in discussion with Chinese agencies since then on whether it can continue to operate its Chinese search engine unfiltered. Following Google’s statement in January, Chinese officials have been reiterating their stance that Google and other foreign companies in the country must follow the rules set by the government. However, this is the first time a high ranking official has publicly gone as far as Yizhong did on Friday.

Yizhong’s comments on Friday came on the sidelines of Chinese legislature’s annual session. He also said that many aspects of the Google issue are not handled by his ministry, which makes it difficult for him to comment on the talks between the company and Chinese officials. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday that the company would soon reach a conclusion in its talks with Chinese government.

According to many analysts, who follow China’s internet policy, it is unlikely that Google will get away letting the content on its Chinese search engine go completely unfiltered. If the Chinese government does ban the search engine, it will be interesting to see its stance against Google’s main website in the country.

Chinese government censors content ranging from pornography to any criticism of leaders of the Communist Party. Censorship is part of the Chinese government’s core policy. The Chinese government has been tightening the control over the internet to make sure that its citizens are not exposed to any kind of dissent against the Communist Party. The government has particularly come down heavily on social activists in the country, who use the internet to voice their opposition against the Communist Party and its leaders.