China Warns Google: Stop Being 'Political Tool'

Business could suffer, editorial threatens
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 6, 2011 7:17 AM CDT
After Gmail Hacking, China Warns Google to Stop 'Accusations'
In a Monday March 22, 2010, file photo men walk past the Google China headquarters in Beijing, China.   (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan/file)

China is not happy with Google. A front-page editorial in a Communist party newspaper accuses the search giant of "trying to provoke a new dispute between China and the US" through its suggestions that recent Gmail hacking attacks on US officials originated in China. "Google should not become overly embroiled in international political struggle, playing the role of a tool for political contention," the editorial continues.

Though Google has not directly accused the Chinese government of staging the attacks, it did trace them to Jinan. The editorial says those "accusations" are "spurious, have ulterior motives, and bear malign intentions," and that Google has no evidence for its "slander," the Telegraph reports. It also includes a vague warning: "When the international winds shift direction," Google "may become sacrificed to politics and will be spurned by the marketplace." (More Google China attack stories.)

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