"We firmly oppose such words and deeds, which go against the facts and are harmful to China-US relations," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said, in China's strongest comments since the Google dispute erupted last week. "We urge the United States to respect facts and stop using the so-called Internet freedom issue to criticise China unreasonably," he said in a statement posted on the ministry website.
In a major policy speech on Internet freedom in Washington, Clinton reiterated US support for "a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas". She called on China "to conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions" revealed by Google and for "its results to be transparent".
The two sides have become locked in a spiralling dispute over Chinese web controls sparked by Internet giant Google's announcement last week it would no longer obey China's censorship rules and might pull out of the country. Google said the decision was made after it suffered cyberattacks that the company believes originated in China and appeared aimed at cracking the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
China's government declined to respond to AFP requests Friday for comment on a possible investigation of the attacks. Until Friday, Beijing had generally held fire in the dispute, defending its censorship as necessary and saying foreign firms must comply, but refraining from hitting back at mounting US criticism over its control of the Internet.