WikiLeaks: Chinese contact claimed Beijing hacked Google as part of coordinated computer sabotage campaign

By DAVID GARDNER
Last updated at 10:34 PM on 28th November 2010

The U.S. believes the Chinese government was behind an internet hacking attack on Google and Western governments.

Beijing has adamantly denied any knowledge of the internet interference.

But secret U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks quote an official from the American Embassy in Beijing as saying that a contact blamed the Chinese authorities.

Victim: Chinese hackers are said to have broken in to the computer of the Dalai Lama, shown here with President George Bush in 2007

'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,’ said the ‘Chinese contact’.

Chinese operatives are also believed to have broken into computers of U.S. and Western allies along with those of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the cables said, according to the New York Times.