Is Google prepared to go to war with China?

It certainly looks that way.

After Chinese hackers targeted the gmail accounts of human rights activists, Google is posturing itself with a very deliberate, principled stand.

We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

What's missing from Google's statement is wether the Chinese government is believed to be behind the hacking attempts. It's heavily implied, both by the targets of the attacks and Google's response to having a free speech version in China, or no version at all.