I didn't mean to imply that I have any inside knowledge of the hack - I'm basing my views on this from what I've read in news outlets. I doubt I have any more knowledge on the subject than you. (Unless I'm misinterpreting sarcasm on your part)
> China and the US hack each other for strategic purposes and that when China hacks the US it is not about dissidents.
The Chinese intelligence services are going to focus on targets that will forward their own national goals. This will off course include strategic goals such as increasing economic and regional military influence, but don't discount their desire to maintain internal stability. They invest a significant amount of resources into controlling content on the internet and other media venues. In recent memory, their Great Firewall infrastructure was used to target dissidents hosting their materials within the US (which incensed the HN crowd with the whole Github DDOS).
There's plenty of good reasons for China to target Google. They have every reason to distrust Google as the US government has to distrust Chinese tech companies, and there's bound to be a wealth of information on their servers useful for counter intelligence, economic, political and likely even military gain as well. I don't we'll ever know exactly what all of their reasons were for breaking in, but I don't think the theory that one of the primary motivations was targeting dissidents can be waved away as just spin.