WASHINGTON DC, United States?The State Department is taking cyberattacks on Google and other US firms very seriously and is seeking an explanation from Beijing but it is not the "foreign policy arm of Google," a US official said on Wednesday.
Alec Ross, the senior advisor for innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also said that a speech Clinton is due to give on Thursday on Internet freedom would not focus solely on China.
Speaking of the cyberattacks which Internet giant Google said last week originated in China, Ross said: "I think it is important to emphasize the private nature of some of this.?
"This is primarily an issue between Google and 30 plus other private entities and the Chinese government," he said at the start of a panel discussion sponsored by the New America Foundation and Slate magazine.
"But we have responded with what I think is justifiable concern," Ross said. "We've asked for an explanation."
Ross added that the United States and China "have had conversations over the years where we've made clear our opinions both about the freedom of expression as well as cybersecurity.
"So we're taking this very seriously," he said.
"But all of that said, the State Department is not the foreign policy arm of Google," he said.
"So while we will look to the Chinese for an explanation, we do need to engage in this appropriately recognizing the primacy of the role of the private sector actors within this," Ross said.
Google has said it will no longer censor Web search results in China following the cyberattacks even if that means it has to shut down its operations in the world's largest online market.
China for its part has defended its right to filter information on the Web and said foreign firms must obey Chinese laws.
Ross said Clinton, in her speech at the Washington-based Newseum on Thursday, "is going to speak to Internet freedom and lay out a series of initiatives."
"Even though China is very much grabbing the headlines today I think one of the things we need to recognize is the global perspective of this," he said. "Tomorrow's speech is not a speech about China."
Kurt Campbell, Clinton's top diplomat for east Asia, said Tuesday that the US and Chinese governments have had "multiple meetings" about Google and China and plan to have more in the next few days.
Clinton last week 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 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.
It forced Google on Tuesday to postpone the launch in China of two mobile phones featuring its Android operating system and developed in conjunction with Motorola and Samsung which were to be used on China Unicom's network.
On Wednesday, China's top Internet search engine, Baidu, said it had sued a US Web domain name registration firm, Register.com, in a New York court after its site was hacked.
Baidu said it was seeking damages after its site went down for hours in the January 12 attack by a group identifying itself as the "Iranian Cyber Army," the same name used by hackers who briefly shut down Twitter last month.
Baidu said software behind its domain name "was unlawfully and maliciously altered" as a result of "gross negligence" at Register.com.
