China is open to business is the statement being made by China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Thursday.
This statement came two days after the internet search giant Google announced it might be pulling out of China due to censorship.
This would mean Google closing offices in China, and bringing to end its Goolge.cn operation, which caters to an online internet market of 360 million.
China web censorship dubbed the "Great Firewall of China" blocks content such as political objection, pornography etcetera. Google clearly would have known this on going into in 2006, and it would have been interesting to know what has changed.
If Google were to secure a deal with the Chinese at this juncture without having to pull out of entirely, this could mean that its approximately 33% share of the search engine market in China could rise. Chinese having seen the extent Google will go to in order to to protect freedoms might gravitate to a search engine it can trust.
China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu also said "China welcomes international Internet companies to conduct business within the country according to law,". "China's law prohibits cyber crimes including hacker attacks."
This was possibly in reply to Google's claims of it being hacked. Google is expected to hold talks with the government of China with regards to operating an unfiltered search engine within the gamut of the laws of China.
