China steps up defense of Internet controls

China widened its attack against U.S. criticisms of Internet censorship on Monday, raising the stakes in a dispute that has put Google in the middle of a political quarrel between the two global powers.

China has defended its curbs on the Internet nearly two weeks after the world's biggest search engine provider, Google Inc., threatened to shut down its Chinese Google.cn site after a severe hacking attack from within China. The dispute could narrow room for Beijing and Washington to back down quietly and focus on other disputes such as trade, currency, human rights and U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan. "The more this case takes on high-level political import for the Chinese government, the more likely it is to stick to its guns," said David Wolf, president of Wolf Group Asia, an advisory firm covering Chinese media and telecommunications. "The Chinese government can't be seen as backing down on such a fundamental issue," said Wolf.

Separately, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Monday said the Internet needs to thrive in China as an engine of free speech and described official online censorship by Beijing as "very limited."