Official Chinese media blames Google over Gmail suspension

Beijing, Dec 30: US Internet giant Google's failure to obey Chinese law is to be blamed for the suspension of its popular email service, a state-run daily today said after the last indirect means to access Gmail was apparently blocked.

"China welcomes the firm to do business on the prerequisite that it obeys Chinese law. However, Google values more its reluctance to be restricted by Chinese law, resulting in conflict," an editorial in the Global Times said.

"The issue at heart is to what extent Google is willing to obey Chinese law, on which China's attitude is steadfast," the article titled 'Gmail glitch fuels unnecessary speculation' said.

The world's biggest email service, Gmail has been largely inaccessible from within China since the run-up to the 25th anniversary in June of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro- democracy protests.

Its services accessed though VPN (Virtual Private Network) via Internet servers abroad to skip China's massive surveillance firewalls were also barred by the government in recent days. Google has maintained a delicate relationship with China since it withdrew from the Chinese mainland in 2010.

The editorial also hinted that the ban may have been enforced suspended due to security considerations and asked users to reconcile to the fact. "If the China side indeed blocked Gmail, the decision must have been prompted by newly emerged security reasons. If that is the case, Gmail users need to accept the reality of Gmail being suspended in China," it said.

However, sounding conciliatory, it said: "But we hope it is not the case. We only need to have faith that China has its own logic in terms of Internet policy and it is made and run in accordance with the country's fundamental interests." "We don't want to be shut off, as it obviously doesn't serve our own interests".

Chinese foreign ministry yesterday said it was not aware of the nation's inability to access Gmail services. "China always welcomes and supports foreign investors' legal business operations in China and will continue to provide an open, transparent and fair environment for foreign enterprises," spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

PTI