Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Sunday 17 January 2010 at 13:15:00

Yahoo’s continued presence in China could be in doubt after its partner in
the country,
Alibaba
Group, criticised the internet giant for its comments on the recent attack
by Chinese hackers on Google and other companies, according to reports.

Yahoo sold its China business to Alibaba in 2005. The Chinese internet
company runs retail site Taobao.com, payment platform Alipay and e-commerce site
Alibaba.com, but Yahoo retains a 30 per cent stake in Alibaba.

After Google revealed last week that it and at least 20 other big name firms
had been hit by a highly sophisticated attack originating from China, Yahoo
condemned the incident and said that it stood aligned with Google in opposing
all actions which violate user privacy, despite
going
on to say “our position in China will remain business as usual”.

However, Alibaba spokesman John Spelich is reported as saying in a statement
that his firm has “communicated to Yahoo that Yahoo’s statement that it is
‘aligned’ with the position Google took last week was reckless given the lack of
facts in evidence”.

He added that “Alibaba doesn’t share this view”, a position which could cause
problems for Yahoo if it wants to maintain its stake in the company and token
presence in the region.

It is thought that Yahoo was one of the other firms to be hit by the targeted
hacking attacks, although it has yet to confirm or deny this. The US government
is
expected
to issue a formal complaint to the Chinese authorities about the incident
early this week.