Clinton will raise issue of Google website attack with Chinese foreign minister

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is said to be likely to press Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the dispute between the Chinese government and search giant Google when the two meet later this week for meetings on Yemen and Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, hackers operating from mainland China attacked Google servers in a well-coordinated strike. Google insists, nevertheless, that the attack failed to access the webmail accounts of the human rights activists that had been targeted. The attack - coupled with the possibility raised by computer security experts that the Chinese government had been involved - prompted Google to announce that it would no longer comply with the government's censorship policies for web results.

This announcement attracted worldwide media attention, and many online pundits have predicted that a direct consequence of Google's move away from censorship would be the demise of the company's Google.cn web portal.

Clinton has already criticized the Chinese government's lack of openness in the matter, and the Chinese have responded by calling Clinton's and Google's allegations irresponsible and likely to lead to the deterioration of relations between the two countries.