Senior Chinese figures were behind the hacking of Google earlier this year which forced the search engine to quit the country, leaked US cables suggest.
One cable, released by whistle-blowing site Wikileaks, cites a "well-placed" contact as saying the action against Google was "100% political".
A politburo member is said to have been angered after Googling his name and finding critical comments online.
The cable says it is unclear whether China's top leaders were involved.
Other cables show Beijing has been "extremely concerned" about the use of high-resolution satellite imagery on Google's mapping software, Google Earth.
In January, Google said it had been subjected to a "sophisticated cyber attack originating from China" - it said the e-mail accounts of human rights activists were among those hacked.
In the ensuing row over internet censorship, Google abandoned mainland China and moved its Chinese-language operations to Hong Kong.
The company did not say who it thought was responsible but the cables, released by Wikileaks and published on the Guardian website, show the company had repeatedly raised concerns about. BBC News
