希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)呼吁中国对谷歌(Google)上周表示受到的网络攻击进行“彻底”和“透明”的调查。

不过，对于网络搜索巨擘谷歌在审查问题上的姿态，美国国务卿并未给予任何直接支持。她在这场冲突将如何影响美中两国关系的问题上措辞谨慎。

希拉里是在华盛顿发表演说时做出上述评论的。美国国务院将这一演说描绘成美国支持网络公开之举。

美国科技公司和互联网专家对政府的这一公开立场表示欢迎，尽管一些人警告称，美国可能难以逆转近期万维网审查急剧上升的趋势。

“从事网络攻击的国家或个人，应当面对后果和国际谴责，”希拉里表示。“在一个互联互通的世界上，对一个国家网络的攻击，可能是针对全球社会的攻击。”

谷歌表示，据该公司追查，上述网络攻击是12月中旬从中国发起的。一名知情人士表示，该公司正是因为相信这些攻击以某种方式得到官方认可，才威胁要撤出中国。

希拉里承认，让企业站出来反对审查制度是很难的，但她接着说：“对企业来说，这个问题不止是关于占领道德制高点；归根结底，这是公司与其顾客之间的信任问题。”

她补充说：“各国的消费者都希望能够相信，自己依赖的互联网公司将提供完整的搜索结果，并且负责任地管好用户信息。”

希拉里表示，她将利用美国的援助来反击审查制度，保持在线网络畅通。

一名官员补充说，美国将研究向站出来反对审查、试图保持网络畅通的海外团体提供财务及技术支持，比如去年伊朗举行有争议的大选后该国涌现的抗议团体。她说，各国的自身利益应当促使它们放松网上管制。

译者/和风

China Needs to Probe Google Case

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday urged China to investigate cyber intrusions that led Google to threaten to pull out of that country — and challenged Beijing to openly publish its findings.

"Countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic rights of Internet users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century," she said, adding that the U.S. and China "have different views on this issue, and we intend to address those differences candidly and consistently."

She cited China as among a number of countries where there has been "a spike in threats to the free flow of information" over the past year. She also named Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Vietnam.

Clinton made her remarks in a wide-ranging speech about Internet freedom and its place in U.S. foreign policy.

"Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their people from accessing portions of the world's networks," she said.

"They have expunged words, names and phrases from search engine results," Clinton said. "They have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in nonviolent political speech."

Earlier this month, Google said that it will remain in China only if the government relents on rules requiring the censorship of content the ruling communist party considers subversive. The ultimatum came after Google said it uncovered a computer attack that tried to plunder its software coding and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists protesting Chinese policies.

State Department officials have said they intend soon to lodge a formal complaint with Chinese officials over the Google matter, which a senior Chinese government official said Thursday should not affect U.S.-China relations.

Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said in Beijing, "The Google case should not be linked with relations between the two governments and countries; otherwise, it's an over-interpretation," according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

The Xinhua report did not mention censorship, instead referring to Google's "disagreements with government policies."

CBS News' chief political consultant Marc Ambinder reports that the U.S. government, according to his sources, has "solid evidence" that not only was the attack on Google mounted by hackers in China, it was sanctioned by the government.

However, Ambinder points out, as there are seven separate ministries in China which work to regulate cyberspace, U.S. officials aren't sure whether the order for the attack came from senior Chinese leaders, or whether it was mounted independently by an intelligence agency as part of a larger collection plan. What also confuses officials is the dual nature of the targets: some human rights activists with interests in Tibetan politics found their Gmail exploited, but so did large U.S. defense contractors.

The Xinhua report did not mention censorship, instead referring to Google's "disagreements with government policies."

In a passage of her speech before she explicitly mentioned the Google matter, Clinton spoke broadly about the connection between information freedom and international business.

"Countries that censor news and information must recognize that, from an economic standpoint, there is no distinction between censoring political speech and commercial speech," she said. "If businesses in your nation are denied access to either type of information, it will inevitably reduce growth."

"Increasingly, U.S. companies are making the issue of information freedom a greater consideration in their business decisions," she added. "I hope that their competitors and foreign governments will pay close attention to this trend."

She then raised the Google case.

"We look to Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review of the cyber intrusions that led Google to make its announcement," she said, referring to Google's recent statement that it is reconsidering its business operations in China. "We also look for that investigation and its results to be transparent."

Ambinder also reports that, according to sources with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation, Google does believe that some of its own employees were working with Chinese intelligence operatives in the hack.

"Figuring out how to discipline them - and investigate the extent of the penetration - is proving incredibly challenging given their locale and their own tensions with Chinese authorities," says Ambinder. The sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, tell Ambinder that Google's internal investigation is being assisted by the FBI and NSA.

There have already been aftershocks from Google's announcement. On Tuesday, Google postponed the launch of two mobile phones in China, adding to the potential commercial fallout from the dispute with Beijing.

The delay affects separate phones made by Motorola and Samsung. The handsets are both powered by Android, a mobile operating software system developed by Google. Both phones were scheduled to debut this week, with China Unicom Ltd. serving as the carrier.