China rejected on Friday a call by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for the lifting of restrictions on the Internet in the communist country, denouncing her criticism as false and damaging to bilateral ties.

A state-run newspaper labeled the appeal from Washington as "information imperialism."
Clinton's speech on Thursday elevated the issue of Internet freedom in the US human rights agenda as never before. She urged China to investigate cyber intrusions that recently prompted search engine Google to threaten to pull out of the country.

"Regarding comments that contradict facts and harm China-US relations, we are firmly opposed," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement posted on Friday on the ministry's website.

"We urge the US side to respect facts and stop using the so-called freedom of the Internet to make unjustified accusations against China," the statement said.

In her speech in Washington, Clinton cited China as among a number of countries where there has been "a spike in threats to the free flow of information" over the past year. She also named Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

Ma defended China's policies promoting the web, saying the nation boasted more than 380 million users, 3.6 million websites, and 180 million blogs.

"The Chinese Internet is open and China is the country witnessing the most active development of the Internet," Ma said, adding that China regulated the web according to law and in keeping with its "national conditions and cultural traditions.