China denies involvement in Google cyberattacks

By Steven Musil
Security
CNet News
January 24, 2010

After warning of strained U.S.-China relations, China's government has issued a statement denying any state involvement in the cyber attacks on Google and some 30 other companies.

The statement, issued Monday Beijing time by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and carried on the state news agency Xinhua, comes at a time of heightened tension between China and the United States over Internet censorship and security in China.

The "accusation that the Chinese government participated in (any) cyberattack, either in an explicit or inexplicit way, is groundless and aims to denigrate China," an unidentified ministry spokesman told Xinhua, according to an Agence France Presse report. "We are firmly opposed to that."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton formally denounced Internet censorship in a speech Thursday that was directed both at the private and public sectors. For corporations, she said, "Censorship should not be accepted by any company from anywhere. American companies need to make a principled stand."