At a hearing of the House International Relations subcommittee, Representative Tom Lantos, the full committee’s top Democrat, told Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Cisco that their “abhorrent actions in China are a disgrace. I simply don’t understand how your corporate leadership sleeps at night.”

He went on to charge them with amassing great wealth and influence “but apparently very little social responsibility.”

In reply, a Google representative acknowledged that coming to terms with China’s internet market “has been a difficult exercise.”

Elliot Schrage from Google said: “the requirements of doing business in China include self-censorship — something that runs counter to Google’s most basic values and commitments as a company.”

Nevertheless, Google had decided to enter China because it thought it “will make a meaningful, though imperfect, contribution to the overall expansion of access to information in China.”

Wired.com reports: “Google urged the State Department and the U.S. trade representative to press U.S. concerns on censorship during talks with foreign governments. … China says its aims are benign — to protect its citizens, and especially children, from ‘the immoral and harmful content’ of the internet.”