A speech about Internet freedom that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to deliver early Thursday could add fuel to the simmering controversy over Google's threat to pull out of China.

Alec Ross, Clinton's senior adviser for innovation, said in an interview that Clinton will propose "new policies and programs" to encourage online freedom worldwide.

Clinton's speech is set for 9:30 a.m. Eastern at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and will be streamed live.

She is expected to lay out the Obama Administration's strategy for protecting basic freedoms in the Internet age. Clinton's proposals will address the fact that 31% of the world's population live in countries where there is Internet censorship, including China, says Ross.

Clinton's speech has been scheduled for some time. But it happens to come 10 days after Google said it "may well" leave China because of censorship and cyberattacks carried out to steal company secrets.

Google advised the State Department staff about its complaint, and Clinton last week issued a statement saying Google has raised "very serious concerns."

Then on Monday, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China warned its members that reporters in a few bureaus in Beijing recently discovered that cyberintruders had gained control of their Gmail accounts.

By Byron Acohido