Clinton: China Needs to Probe Google Case
Updated at 11:25 a.m. EST
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday urged China to investigate cyber intrusions that led Google to threaten to pull out of that country — and challenged Beijing to openly publish its findings.
"Countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic rights of Internet users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century," she said, adding that the U.S. and China "have different views on this issue, and we intend to address those differences candidly and consistently."
She cited China as among a number of countries where there has been "a spike in threats to the free flow of information" over the past year. She also named Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Vietnam.
Clinton made her remarks in a wide-ranging speech about Internet freedom and its place in U.S. foreign policy.
"Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their people from accessing portions of the world's networks," she said.
"They have expunged words, names and phrases from search engine results," Clinton said. "They have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in nonviolent political speech."
Earlier this month, Google said that it will remain in China only if the government relents on rules requiring the censorship of content the ruling communist party considers subversive. The ultimatum came after Google said it uncovered a computer attack that tried to plunder its software coding and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists protesting Chinese policies.
State Department officials have said they intend soon to lodge a formal complaint with Chinese officials over the Google matter, which a senior Chinese government official said Thursday should not affect U.S.-China relations.
Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said in Beijing, "The Google case should not be linked with relations between the two governments and countries; otherwise, it's an over-interpretation," according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
The Xinhua report did not mention censorship, instead referring to Google's "disagreements with government policies."
CBS News' chief political consultant Marc Ambinder reports that the U.S. government, according to his sources, has "solid evidence" that not only was the attack on Google mounted by hackers in China, it was sanctioned by the government.
However, Ambinder points out, as there are seven separate ministries in China which work to regulate cyberspace, U.S. officials aren't sure whether the order for the attack came from senior Chinese leaders, or whether it was mounted independently by an intelligence agency as part of a larger collection plan. What also confuses officials is the dual nature of the targets: some human rights activists with interests in Tibetan politics found their Gmail exploited, but so did large U.S. defense contractors.
The Xinhua report did not mention censorship, instead referring to Google's "disagreements with government policies."
In a passage of her speech before she explicitly mentioned the Google matter, Clinton spoke broadly about the connection between information freedom and international business.
"Countries that censor news and information must recognize that, from an economic standpoint, there is no distinction between censoring political speech and commercial speech," she said. "If businesses in your nation are denied access to either type of information, it will inevitably reduce growth."
"Increasingly, U.S. companies are making the issue of information freedom a greater consideration in their business decisions," she added. "I hope that their competitors and foreign governments will pay close attention to this trend."
She then raised the Google case.
"We look to Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review of the cyber intrusions that led Google to make its announcement," she said, referring to Google's recent statement that it is reconsidering its business operations in China. "We also look for that investigation and its results to be transparent."
Ambinder also reports that, according to sources with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation, Google does believe that some of its own employees were working with Chinese intelligence operatives in the hack.
"Figuring out how to discipline them - and investigate the extent of the penetration - is proving incredibly challenging given their locale and their own tensions with Chinese authorities," says Ambinder. The sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, tell Ambinder that Google's internal investigation is being assisted by the FBI and NSA.
There have already been aftershocks from Google's announcement. On Tuesday, Google postponed the launch of two mobile phones in China, adding to the potential commercial fallout from the dispute with Beijing.
The delay affects separate phones made by Motorola and Samsung. The handsets are both powered by Android, a mobile operating software system developed by Google. Both phones were scheduled to debut this week, with China Unicom Ltd. serving as the carrier.