With the backdrop of Google's intentions to pull out operations from China, after the reported cyberattacks, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told news channels on Thursday that Microsoft would continue business inside of China, as well as abide by the laws of that country.

In an interview on CNBC, Ballmer said that "Cyberattacks are an unfortunate way of life," and added: "We've been quite clear that we are going to operate in China, and we're going to abide by the law."

However, Ballmer stopped short of raising the issue of censorship or human rights, which, as per Google, were vital to its new approach towards China - Google had declared on Tuesday that plans to stop censoring its search results in China, after a China-originated "sophisticated cyberattacks" led to the theft of some of its intellectual property.

The Google declaration has evidently put pressure on its rivals to clarify their position towards China - a question to which Microsoft had thus far refrained from commenting.

Despite the recent announcement about Microsoft continuing in China, Ballmer did say that "Intellectual-property protection in China is very, very bad;" thereby referring to the IP theft problem that might pose bigger challenges for Microsoft in case it decides to exit China, as it would lead to an unchecked burgeoning of the piracy of its products.