US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday said the recent cyber-attacks on US internet giant Google, alleged to have originated from China, raised "serious concerns."
"We look to the Chinese government for an explanation," she said in a statement. "The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy."
Google's chief legal officer David Drummond wrote in a company blog that the company was reviewing its operations in China following "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China" last month, DPA reported.
The would-be hackers attempted to access the email accounts of Chinese rights activists, the statement said.
The company's review of its China operations was also motivated by "attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web," wrote Drummond.
The blog posting announced Google's intention to end its compliance with China's internet censorship regulations, in a move welcomed by human rights groups.
"A transnational attack on privacy is chilling, and Google's response sets a great example," Arvind Ganesan, director of Human Rights Watch's programme on corporations, said in a statement.
The company launched its China-based search engine Google.cn in January 2006, agreeing to comply with Chinese laws and to filter search results.
The blog in which Drummond wrote his comments was blocked in China on Wednesday, along with hundreds of other websites and web pages.