Sharon LaFraniere

The Chinese authorities have warned major partners of Google's China-based search engine that they must comply with censorship laws even if Google does not.

While much of the rest of the world frets about Chinese cyberspying abroad, China is increasingly alarmed about the threat that the Internet poses to its security and political stability.

The Chinese government is taking a cautious approach to the dispute with Google, treating the conflict as a business dispute that requires commercial negotiations and not a political matter that could affect relations with the United States.

As the Chinese government expands what it calls a campaign against pornography, cellular companies in Beijing and Shanghai have been told to suspend text services to cellphone users who are found to have sent messages with "illegal or unhealthy content."

"Avatar," the Hollywood blockbuster that has proved wildly popular with Chinese moviegoers, will be pulled in the next few days from the majority of Chinese theaters where it is showing.

China's government censors have taken fresh aim at the Internet, rolling out new measures that limit its citizens' ability to set up personal Web sites and to view hundreds of Web sites offering films, video games and other forms of entertainment.

President Obama spent part of his last morning in Beijing giving an interview to Southern Weekly, a newspaper in Guangdong Province sometimes known for its push-the-envelope approach to the government's ever-present censorship. But if the White House expected a hard-hitting article that showcased the United States' commitment to press freedom, it must have been disappointed when the newspaper hit the stands on Thursday.

In China, the state-controlled mobile service company has changed its customers' cellphone ring-back tones to a patriotic song.

In a spate of arrests announced Thursday, Beijing officials put the blame for a Monday fire that destroyed part of the government's spectacular new media complex squarely on the shoulders of the state-run television network.