The U.S. government plans to send a in the next few days to China in response to Google's charges. "It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation on how it happened and what they plan to do about it," said a U.S. Statement Department spokesman.

The U.S. has not accused China of cyber industrial espionage. Even if it could prove China's guilt, it may never make the findings public. U.S. officials may determine that such knowledge should be kept in the bank.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to speak on Internet censorship issues some time next week. But don't expect much beyond a letter and a speech from the U.S., because the real drama isn't Google, it's in the South China Sea.

The U.S. and China continue to have little military confrontations that hint to the underlying tensions. Just this past March, the U.S. hosed, literally, the Chinese Navy.

The U.S. ship Impeccable (officially an oceanographic ship) was, according to a U.S. government account, 70 miles south of Hainan Island when five Chinese vessels closed in on it. The Department of Defense release this account of what happened next: "Crewmen aboard the Impeccable used fire hoses to spray one of the vessels as a protective measure. The Chinese crewmembers disrobed to their underwear and continued closing to within 25 feet. "