US objects to Chinas order on web filtering

The Obama administration lodged a formal protest on Wednesday with the Chinese Government over its plan to force all computers sold in China to come with software that blocks access to certain websites.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and trade representative Ron Kirk sent a letter to officials in two Chinese ministries,asking them to rescind a rule about the software that is set to take effect on July 1. Chinese officials have said that the filtering software,known as Green Dam-Youth Escort,is meant to block pornography and other unhealthy information.

China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them,with virtually no public notice,to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues, Locke said.

China accused Google Inc on Thursday of spreading pornography after Chinese users were unable to connect to the website. We have found that8230; google.com has spread lots of pornographic,lewd and vulgar content,which is in serious violation of Chinese laws and regulations, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.