WASHINGTON — The United States said Friday that it will formally ask the Chinese government in "the coming days" for an explanation of China-based cyberattacks on the Internet giant Google.
"We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early this week," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters.
"It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation of how it happened and what they plan to do about it," he said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already informally asked for an explanation from China for what Google said was a wave of "highly sophisticated" cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists.
The White House on Thursday backed Google's decision to no longer submit to China's Internet censorship in a row the search giant warns could lead it to pull out of the country.
The row has threatened to rattle ties between Washington and Beijing -- already frayed over a number of issues, from the Copenhagen climate change debacle to the value of the Chinese yuan and a number of other trade disputes.
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