BEIJING, Jan 23,  (Agencies): Beijing has issued a stinging response to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of damaging relations between the two countries by imposing its “information imperialism” on China.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu defended China’s policies regarding the Web, saying the nation’s Internet regulations were in line with Chinese law and did not hamper the cyber activities of the world’s largest online population. His remarks followed those made by the US secretary of state, who in a speech Thursday criticized countries engaging in cyberspace censorship, and urged China to investigate computer attacks against Google.

“Regarding comments that contradict facts and harm China-US relations, we are firmly opposed,” Ma said in a statement posted Friday on the ministry’s Web site. “We urge the US side to respect facts and stop using the so-called freedom of the Internet to make unjustified accusations against China.”
In her speech in Washington, Clinton cited China as among a number of countries where there has been “a spike in threats to the free flow of information” over the past year. She also named Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
A state-run newspaper labeled the appeal from Washington as “information imperialism,” and Ma insisted that China had “the most active development of the Internet” of any country.
Washington, meanwhile, carried its message on Internet freedom directly to Chinese bloggers. The US Embassy in Beijing and consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou hosted Internet-streamed discussions with members of the blogging community on Friday afternoon — the latest example of Washington’s outreach to Chinese bloggers as a way of spreading its message.

US President Barack Obama is “troubled” by cyberattacks on Internet titan Google and wants answers from China, the White House said Friday.
The State Department said meanwhile that US and Chinese diplomats have held several meetings to discuss the attacks, which Google said targeted the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists, and more talks were expected.
“We are having high-level meetings and we will continue to have meetings and we will continue to press this issue aggressively,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. “We will continue to seek an explanation from China.
“A blanket denial that nothing happened we don’t think is particularly helpful,” Crowley added.
Obama is also looking to Beijing to shed light on the cyberattacks which have prompted Google to say it will stop censoring Web search results in China, a move that may force it to leave the country entirely.

Also:
SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are relinquishing some of their control over the Internet search leader with the sale of 10 million shares worth $5.5 billion at current prices.
Under a plan disclosed Friday, the longtime business partners will each sell 5 million Google shares during a five-year period that will commence with the first trade.
The sales will occur periodically to lessen the chances of hurting Google’s stock price.
Page and Brin, both 36, will remain Google’s most influential shareholders, although they will be losing some of their clout.
The two iconoclasts own a special class of Google stock that gives them combined voting power of about 59 percent — enough to override the wishes of all other shareholders if they wanted. The duo secured this veto power to ensure Google remained true to their values, which are summed up in the company motto, “Don’t Be Evil.”

SAN FRANCISCO: Google is courting folks that make games people love to play on smartphones.
The Internet giant has teamed with a professional Game Developers Conference (GDC) taking place in San Francisco in March to offer free Nexus One and Droid smartphones to those that register early for the event.
Sessions at the conference will be devoted to games tailored for mobile devices, “making attendees great potential developers of new content for phones using the Android” operating system, according to GDC organizers.
Game applications are top sellers at Apple’s wildly popular App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch devices, which Google has in its cross-hairs with its freshly launched Nexus One and an online Android Market for mini-programs.
Growing numbers of hardware makers are building smartphones, netbooks and tablet computers based on Google’s open-source Android software.