Google May Close China Operations

Google threatened Tuesday to shut down its operations in China after uncovering what it said were "highly sophisticated" cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists.

China-based cyber spies struck the Internet giant and at least 20 other unidentified firms in an apparent bid to hack into the email accounts of activists around the world, Google said Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Beijing to explain the cyberattacks.

Related article: US calls on China to explain attacks

"We look to the Chinese government for an explanation," the chief US diplomat said in a released statement.

"The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy."

The online espionage has Google reconsidering its business operations in China and it said it will no longer filter Internet search engine results in that country.

"These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered -- combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the Web -- have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China," Google chief legal officer David Drummond said in a blog post.

"We are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all," he said.

Drummond said Google realizes that defying Chinese government demands regarding filtering Internet search engine results may mean having to shut down its operations in China.

Google said it detected in mid-December "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google."

The company said it was notifying at least 20 other large companies of similar attacks including finance, Internet, media, technology, and chemical firms. Related article: Baidu shares up after Google warning "We have no indication that any of our mail properties have been compromised,"

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