Google 'expects' China licence renewal

Google is to halt its automatic redirect to servers in Hong Kong

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt believes that the company's Chinese licence will be renewed, despite ongoing tensions with the Chinese government.

Schmidt claimed at an industry event in Sun Valley that Google "now expects to get a renewal", according to a Reuters report.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Wednesday that it is reviewing Google's licence renewal application, but gave no deadline for completion, nor did Schmidt offer a date during his comments.

Tensions rose between Google and the Chinese authorities in January when the company decided to stop censoring its Chinese search services following cyber-attacks on Gmail accounts belonging to human rights activists.

Google has since been redirecting visitors to Google.cn to a site hosted in Hong Kong.

The firm said last week that it will stop this automatic redirect, as the Chinese government found it "unacceptable" and Google's licence "will not be renewed" if the redirect continues.

Google submitted its Chinese internet content provider licence renewal application at the end of last month based on an "alternative" system.

Chinese visitors will be taken to a landing page on Google.cn that links to Google.com.hk "where users can conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate".