Google to shut China operations in April?
- Added:
- Mar 19, 2010
Google will close its businesses in China in April, according to a report in China Business News, citing an unnamed local authorised agent of Google.
The newspaper added that Google may announce details of its exit from China on Monday, the day after the company’s staff are due to receive their annual year-end bonus, citing unnamed Google employees in China.
The newspaper didn't specify whether Google will close parts or all of its China operations.
The agent said: “I have received information that Google will leave China on April 10, but this information has not at present been confirmed by Google.”
Google China spokeswoman Marsha Wang declined to comment on the report.
In January Google announced that it could no longer submit to contractual obligations on censorship of its search engine after cyberattacks from China aimed at its source code and the Gmail accounts of several human rights activists.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said last week he hoped to have an outcome soon from talks with Chinese officials on offering an uncensored google.cn search engine in the country.
In the meantime, Google has continued to filter google.cn results to abide by Chinese regulations but it said it if China did not permit it to cease the screening it would be forced to withdraw from the market.
However, its google.com search engine, which is hosted on an offshore server, is unlikely to be affected unless Chinese cyber censors decide to block the service.
