China will not back away from a new rule requiring that internet filtering software be shipped with all computers sold in the country despite heavy criticism of the plan, said state media.
The report in the China Daily newspaper came after United States officials raised concerns to the Chinese Government last week.
Computer makers have been told that all PCs sold from July 1 must be shipped with the Chinese-made anti-pornography software, a move that trade and rights groups say is a bid by Beijing to further tighten controls.
The China Daily quoted an unnamed source at China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology saying the plan would not be changed, giving no other details. US diplomats expressed their concerns in meetings with Chinese officials last week, an embassy spokesman said.
"We had a preliminary meeting with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Ministry of Commerce on Friday to lay out our concerns," embassy spokesman Richard Buangan said.
With the world's largest online population of 300 million people, China has a history of blocking sites it deems politically unacceptable or offensive, a system that is dubbed the "Great Firewall of China".
Overseas and domestic internet users have viewed the new software rule as an attempt by China to filter sensitive websites, but state-run press has defended it as necessary to prevent youngsters from accessing pornograpy.
It has also pointed out that users can choose whether to load the software – called Green Dam Youth Escort – on to their computers or not.
The Chinese designers of the software said they were trying to fix glitches.
Researchers at the University of Michigan had said it contained vulnerabilities that could allow outside parties to take control of computers running it via remote access.
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