Google’s announcement  comes amid growing tensions between China and the United States over Internet freedoms, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton set to announce a technology policy next week to help citizens around the world have access to an uncensored Web.China has over 350 million Web surfers and annual search revenue topping $1 billion.Anyone doing business in china must adhere to strict Chinese censorship rules that ban discussion or display of pages on sensitive topics ranging from Tibetan independence to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.Companies like Google and Microsoft, along with domestic giants Baidu and Sina, all adhere to such rules, though none likes to speak publicly about them.Google said it had uncovered a sophisticated attack on the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists using its Gmail service, and that more than 20 other companies were similarly attacked.

read more here