U.S.-China meeting next month to include Internet freedom talk

American officials are likely to broach the subject of Internet freedom when they join their Chinese counterparts for a scheduled human-rights meeting in Washington next month. Those discussions, the first round of bilateral dialogue between the United States and China since May 2008, arrive as both federal lawmakers and U.S. companies scrutinize Beijing's strict Web-censorship rules and threaten possible penalties. During a press briefing last Thursday, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley announced Internet freedom could be among the issues discussed. "I mean, I'm sure that the broader topic of Internet freedom and the availability of information to Chinese citizens, you know, we — we disagree with China as to what that represents," Crowley said. "I would expect that to come up, yes."