China have said Hilary Clinton calling for Beijing to investigate the Google cyber-attacks could damage the relations between the two countries.

The US had been calling for greater Internet freedom in China after it emerged that many websites were banned or over controlled in which China said that it was for security reasons.

However many officials believe it was for controlling political groups or freedom of speech.

The US secretary of state yesterday portrayed tackling censorship as a new priority for American foreign policy and called on Beijing to conduct a full and open investigation of Google’s claims of a China-originated cyber attack targeting the emails of human rights activists.

“The US has criticised China’s policies to administer the internet and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom,” said foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, in a statement published on the ministry’s website. “This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations. We urge the United States to respect the facts and cease using so-called internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China.”

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