China urges US to stop "unreasonable accusations" in hacker row

China said Friday that the United States should "respect facts" after a series of hacking attacks on US internet firms, DPA reported.

In a first official reaction to statements by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu also said Washington should "stop unreasonable accusations in the name of so-called internet freedom," the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

"Countries or individuals that engage in cyberattacks should face consequences and international condemnation," Clinton said in a speech on internet freedom in Washington.

"The US side had criticized China's policies on internet administration, alluding that China restricts Internet freedom," Ma said. "We firmly oppose such words and deeds, which were against the facts and would harm China-US relations."

Clinton's words would be regarded as a new threat by non-Westerners, the China Daily also warned in an editorial.

"The US campaign for uncensored and free flow of information on an unrestricted internet is a disguised attempt to impose its values on other cultures in the name of democracy," the paper wrote.

"The hard fact that Clinton has failed to highlight in her speech is the bulk of the information flowing from the US and other Western countries is loaded with aggressive rhetoric against those countries that do not follow their lead," it said.

US internet giant Google Inc last week said the company was reviewing its operations in China after "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China" last month and attempts by the Chinese government to limit free speech on the web.

A growing number of people in China was opposed to an "unregulated or uncensored Google in China," the China Daily said.

According to a poll by the news website huanqiu.com, 81 per cent were opposed to the government accepting Google's demands, the paper added.

"Unlike advanced Western countries, Chinese society is still vulnerable to the effect of multifarious information flowing in, especially when it is for creating disorder," the editorial added.