15. Jan 2010
US to protest to China over Google
(BBC) The US state department says it will make a formal protest to China over alleged cyber-attacks on the internet search giant, Google. A spokesman said the US would demand an explanation. Google has threatened to pull out of China because of what it said were hacking attacks and censorship; Beijing has tried to play down the threat. Another US internet giant, Yahoo, is also reported to have been targeted by hackers in China. "We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days", said state department spokesperson PJ Crowley. Google had stated that cyber-attacks originating in China aimed at rights activists, and increased web censorship, might force it to end its China operations. Google announced that it was no longer willing to censor its Chinese search engine - google.cn. In response to Google's concerns, China has said that foreign internet firms are welcome to do business there "according to the law". Jiang Yu, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, insisted the internet was "open" in China.