Google vows to stay in China

Google is still doing business in China

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has insisted that the search giant is still doing business in China and will continue to do so, dismissing rumours that Google may pull its Google China site. 

On Tuesday, Brin expressed regret about China's censorships laws, prompting speculation that Google might close its Chinese operation.

His comments followed months of criticism of Google for abiding by Chinese government censorship rules.

But Brin has now reiterated Google's intention to move ahead with Google.cn, a version of the search engine that censors thousands of sites according to Chinese standards.

Addressing speculation over his comments, Brin admitted to a group of invited journalists that "standing by the principle against censorship" could be interpreted as Google pulling out of China.

But, he insisted, "that's an alternative path. It's not the one we've chosen to take right now," news agency Reuters reported. 

A similar commitment was made in February by Elliot Schrage, Google's vice president of public affairs.

Schrage told a US Congressional Human Rights committee: "We think we have made a reasonable decision, though we cannot be sure it will ultimately be proven to be the best one. We've begun a process that we hope will better serve our Chinese users." 

As part of its plan to begin operating directly in China, Google declined to offer email, blogging, chat or other services where candid discussion could anger Chinese authorities. Google only offers search services and Google News to Chinese users. 

Recent usage numbers suggest that, if Google is not allowed to widen the services of Google.cn, it may be squeezed out of the market by Baidu, China's most popular search engine. 

Chinese web users can use the uncensored Google.com if they wish. But as vnunet.com reported on Wednesday, Chinese authorities are believed to have blocked domestic users from accessing Google.com, and Sergey Brin has blamed Chinese ISPs for deliberately making Google.com so slow as to be unusable.