State restriction in countries like China should be put on the United States’ trade agenda according to Google.

The US is considering raising China’s censorship with the World Trade Organization, according to Bloomberg.

Google is reassessing its procedures in China following hacking attacks that targeted the Google accounts of political activists.

At the start of this year Google said it was no longer eager to stifle the Chinese language version of its search engine.

When Google launched google.cn in 2006, it agreed to censor some search results – such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Tibetan independence or religious group Falun Gong – as required by the Chinese government.

China has said it welcomes international internet companies, provided they “respect the Chinese public’s interests, the nation’s traditional culture and its laws and regulations”.

Google currently holds about one-third of the Chinese search market, far behind Chinese rival Baidu, which has more than 60%.

China has extra internet users – about 350 million – than any other country and last year had a profitable search engine market value an estimated $1bn (£614m).