Google Considers China Pullout

Google is considering a pullout of China due to cyber attacks and challenges from government censorship. The internet search engine giant said it is evaluating its operations in China and may close its Chinese site, Google.cn and its office in the country.

At noon, news crews swarmed the company's China headquarters in northern Beijing. Bouquets of chrysanthemums and roses had been put on Google's company sign. Google's staff members said that they had no knowledge of the decision until being notified by email on Wednesday morning, followed by a full company meeting at 9:30.

David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, wrote in a blog ( click to read ) post that in January, Google detected major cyber attacks originating from China. Google discovered that the attack also targeted at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses, including the internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors, said Drummond in his blog. The link to Drummond's blog is blocked in China.

Google didn't provide names of companies under attack, but said it is currently in the process of notifying those companies and working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement released late Tuesday night that the U.S. government is taking the attack very seriously and looking to the Chinese government for an explanation. Clinton said she will give a speech on the topic of internet freedom next week and further comment on the issue of Google.

Drummond said that evidence suggested a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts but most failed. Only two Gmail accounts have been accessed with limited information leaked, such as the creation date of the account and subject line.

"These attacks and the surveillance, combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web, have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China," Drummond wrote.