China not involved in negotiations with Google: Chinese IT Minister

Beijing, Mar 7(ANI): Chinese Industry and Information Technology Ministry has refuted that China has been involved in any negotiations with Google since the US search engine threatened to pull back from the country on January 21.

"We have yet to have any direct contacts or negotiations with them on this topic," The China Daily quoted Miao Wei, Vice-Minister of the Ministry, as saying.

Wei also said that Google has never filed reports over alleged Internet regulation and cyber attacks to the ministry or requests for negotiations.

"It had also never informed the ministry that it was planning to withdraw from China," he added.

He said China respects Google's right to decide whether to continue its business in the country.

"If Google decides to continue its business in China and abides by China's laws, it's welcome to stay," Wei said.

"If the company chooses to withdraw from the Chinese market, it must go through certain procedures according to the law and regulations and deal with customers' problems that may arise," he added.

Wei further said he didn't think the Google incident should affect relations between China and the United States.

"It's not a huge problem that should impact the relationship of two countries," he said. (ANI)