From Interfax (link):
Internet monitoring is an internationally common practice and China attaches a great deal of importance to attracting international experience in Internet monitoring, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said.
In recent weeks, US IT giants Google, Cisco, Microsoft and Yahoo! were criticized by the US congress and human rights organizations for aiding the Chinese government in censoring the Internet.
The companies claim they are only following local Chinese laws.
Domestic Internet industry circles have the responsibility to be self-disciplined and carry out self-monitoring to ensure websites transmit accurate information and not mislead the people and should definitely not create a bad influence on society, said Wen.