a curious point comes up when one actually reads the google blog entry about this situation.

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. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

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.
Note that the issue with censorship of human rights activists is point number 2.....point number 1 is corporate interest.....

Google very publicly stated it's "do no harm" rule...but they were the ones that agreed to the chinese rules in the first place.

this strikes me more as a company pissed off that it's IT structure was compromised and using the anti-censorship angle to garner some positive press.