Google Scraps China Phone Launch

And Chinese fire back in dispute over censorship
By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 19, 2010 10:26 AM CST
Google Scraps China Phone Launch
A man uses his mobile phone while looking at a computer screen at the reception area of Google's China headquarters in Beijing.   (AP Photo)

Google has canceled tomorrow's launch of its mobile phone in China, a casualty of the company's standoff with the government over Internet censorship and hacking. A Google spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on the postponement, but it comes the same day the Chinese government made its first comment on Google’s anti-censorship ultimatum last week. “Foreign firms in China should respect China’s laws,” an official said.

Companies should also “respect China’s public customs and traditions, and assume the corresponding social responsibilities, and of course Google is no exception,” the official continued, according to the AP. Talks between the two parties are expected to begin this week. Meanwhile, ABC News reports, Google may be investigating its own China office amid suspicions that the email hack attack on journalists and human rights activists was an “inside job.” (More Google China attack stories.)

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