In a move that is likely to result in the company being forced to withdraw from the Asian powerhouse, and the world's most populous country, the technology provider said the "incredibly hard decision" had been made after attempts to target specific Gmail users.
The company said it had decided to share information about the attacks because it recognised it went "to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech".
Last night, a blog entitled 'A new approach to China' by David Drummond, senior vice president, corporate development and chief legal officer of Google, stated: "In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google."
Drummond acknowledged that Google, like other well-known organisations, faced cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis, but insisted last month's attack was something more significant.
"First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses-including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors-have been similarly targeted," he said.
"Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective.
"Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.
"Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties."
Drummond went on to state that Google had already used information gained from the attack to make "infrastructure and architectural improvements" to its security.
He said: "These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered, combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web, have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China.
"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 recognise that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
"The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences."
Signing off, and in attempt to prevent any personal reprisals, Drummond stressed the Google employees in China had not been involved or responsible for the decision.
When Google launched its self-censored version in China in January 2006, the company stressed its belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China, and a more open internet, outweighed its discomfort in agreeing to censor some results.
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