US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Thursday that he had raised concerns over Internet censorship and online control with Chinese officials.
"The issue of Internet control, the issues confronted by Google, the Green Dam issue were raised," Locke told journalists on the second day of a visit to China.
Locke discussed the issues in talks with his Chinese counterpart Chen Deming and other officials, he said. He had also met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, along with US Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
The "Green Dam" issue refers to an Internet filtering software that China had proposed for all new computers sold in the country.
The new regulation was to be implemented on July 1, but widespread opposition both in and outside of China resulted in Beijing backing down from the measure.
Beijing had said the Chinese-made Green Dam software would filter out pornography, protecting young people within the world's largest online population.
But trade and rights groups expressed fears that Green Dam is another attempt by China to control access to the Internet.
China had also recently threatened to criminally prosecute Google unless the Internet search engine found a way to more effectively block pornography from searches originating from within the country.
China has a history of blocking access to sites carrying politically sensitive topics such as the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on democracy protesters and the banned Falungong spiritual movement.
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