China’s Politburo was behind the massive attack on Google servers that led to the search firm leaving the country, according to leaked US diplomatic cables.
But US State Department cables leaked to whistleblower site Wikileaks also reveal that the US had sought the internet passwords and biometric information of UN leaders.
In the largest ever government leak in history, Wikileaks has begun publishing more than 250,000 US State Department cables, containing secret communication between its embassies and Washington.
The documents were downloaded by a US solider from the worldwide Siprnet network, which is accessed by millions of US military and government staff.
Wikileaks, which last month published leaked documents on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, gave the documents to the New York Times, the Guardian and other major western media.
The first reports, published Sunday, said the Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of sabotage carried out by China government operatives, private security experts and hackers recruited by the Chinese government.