The hacking incident that convinced Google to remove censorship from its search results was a Chinese Government-sponsored effort according to a Chinese contact in the American Embassy in China.
The report briefly cites “government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government.” as the source of the Google (GOOG) intrusion which was aimed at enemies of the Chinese state, including Falun Gong members abroad. As the New York Times reported:
China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country, a Chinese contact told the American Embassy in Beijing in January, one cable reported. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002, cables said.
The news shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, especially Google who seem to have zeroed in on the Chinese government when they understood the target of the attacks (they probably have logged the locations of the attacks as well).
There is a lot of other interesting material in the leaks, take a look here.
