China said yesterday its mobile phone carriers can use Google’s Android operating system so long as it complies with regulations, apparently trying to limit damage to Chinese industry from their dispute over Internet censorship.
Google Inc’s Jan. 12 announcement that it would no longer censor search results in China prompted concern about possible commercial fallout. The company postponed the launch of its own smartphone in China but others are developing Android-based phones and could be hurt if Beijing tries to penalize Google by barring its use.
“As long as it fulfills Chinese laws and regulations and has good communication with telecom operators, I think its application should not have restrictions,” Zhu Hongren (朱宏任), a spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a regular news briefing when asked whether Beijing would permit use of Android.
The comments reflect the conflicting pressures on the government, which insists on controlling information but needs foreign companies like Google to help achieve its goal of making China a technology leader.
Google is in sensitive talks with the government, trying to keep an important Beijing development center, a lucrative advertising sales team and access to China’s booming market for its fledgling mobile phone business.
A Google spokesman, Jessica Powell, declined yesterday to comment on the status of talks or confirm whether top managers from the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters were in Beijing.
Zhu gave no indication of the possible fate of Google’s own phone, planned with local carrier China Unicom Ltd (中國聯通).
State-owned China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), the world’s biggest phone company by subscribers, is developing its own smartphone, the OPhone, which uses a system that has Android as its foundation.
Dell Inc, Motorola Inc and Samsung Electronics Corp also plan to sell Android-based phones in China.
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